“Friend” is a 6,6 m tall inflatable sculpture made by Simon Hjermind Jensen for Bloom, an innovative festival in Copenhagen. Bloom helps reflect on nature, science, and ourselves, and the sculpture will return to this year's events as a landmark for the festival.

Throughout this project Hjermind Jensen have continued his work with organic form and structural pattern making. And for the first time he has worked with textile which has given him the opportunity to explore more complex organic form and pattern making.

The inspiration comes from the trees in Søndermarken, a Copenhagen park, where the main venue of the festival takes place. The project started in the park where Hjermind Jensen created several ceramic models. He sat in front of a tree and shaped each model. Each tree was chosen intuitively, and the models were created freely with his hands while he focused on sensing the shape and being of the tree.
One model was chosen for the project. Directly on this he composed a pattern, which he then scanned, recreated and unfolded in the computer and subsequently drew, cut out, and sewed together in tarpaulin.

The form of the final project is narrow where it meets the ground and bigger at the top where it reaches for the sky. This is similar to the trunk and the crown of a tree. And though the form and silhouettes of the project are abstract and asymmetric it is also possible to sense a back, a stomach, and a head, which makes associations to the human upright body. 

With the project Simon Hjermind Jensen investigates whether organic form can create a stronger feeling of relation between us and nature, rather than the square form, commonly most used in architecture.

Team:
Architect & Photographer: Simon Hjermind Jensen

Materials used: 
Tarpaulin, thread, plywood and blower