SmartAZ
12-28-2004, 04:13 PM
Raising the Bar
Finding a decent pub on a Saturday night can be bloody hard work. This inflatable tavern makes it easy: All you need is a flat surface and two small fans. In six minutes, you'll have a full-blown, 760-square-foot structure that accommodates a fully stocked bar and 30 people. The pub - which features traditional British decor like a framed painting of Big Ben and a stuffed fish over the mantle - was designed by Airquee, a Welsh company that specializes in blow-ups (you may remember its 47-foot-tall Gothic cathedral). Airquee chair Andi Francis says the PVC pub allows for smoking, dart playing, and even some literal bouncing off the walls. According to Avril Baker, who caught the inflat-a-pub's debut at a festival in Bristol in September, "I was just gob-smacked. It took my breath away."
- Kerrie Mitchell
http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/20040528/www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/images/PL_68_street2_f.jpg http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/20040528/www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/images/PL_68_street1_f.jpg
Fireplace exit: Inside, the blow-up pub’s faux hearth doubles as an escape hatch.
Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/play.html?pg=3)
Finding a decent pub on a Saturday night can be bloody hard work. This inflatable tavern makes it easy: All you need is a flat surface and two small fans. In six minutes, you'll have a full-blown, 760-square-foot structure that accommodates a fully stocked bar and 30 people. The pub - which features traditional British decor like a framed painting of Big Ben and a stuffed fish over the mantle - was designed by Airquee, a Welsh company that specializes in blow-ups (you may remember its 47-foot-tall Gothic cathedral). Airquee chair Andi Francis says the PVC pub allows for smoking, dart playing, and even some literal bouncing off the walls. According to Avril Baker, who caught the inflat-a-pub's debut at a festival in Bristol in September, "I was just gob-smacked. It took my breath away."
- Kerrie Mitchell
http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/20040528/www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/images/PL_68_street2_f.jpg http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/20040528/www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/images/PL_68_street1_f.jpg
Fireplace exit: Inside, the blow-up pub’s faux hearth doubles as an escape hatch.
Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/play.html?pg=3)