Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects has created a trio of cavernous chambers from stacked silver and magenta paper tubes inside the National Building Museum in Washington DC.

The installation called Hive features over 2,700 tubes of paper in varying sizes, locked together to create pavilion-like temporary structures.
Studio Gang designed the domes to provide more intimate spaces inside the National Building Museum's soaring Great Hall, for hosting activities from yoga sessions to music concerts.

"When you enter the Great Hall you almost feel like you're in an outside space because of the distance sound travels before it is reflected back and made audible," said Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang.
"We've designed a series of chambers shaped by sound that are ideally suited for intimate conversations and gatherings as well as performances and acoustic experimentation," she continued. "Using wound paper tubes, a common building material with unique sonic properties, and interlocking them to form a catenary dome, we create a hive for these activities, bringing people together to explore and engage the senses."

The domes are built in different sizes to offer a range of acoustic properties. The tallest, which rises 60 feet (approximately 18 metres), also features an oculus at the top offering glimpses of the hall's 19th-century details.
It is flanked by a pair of smaller chambers furnished with tubular instruments, like chimes, which visi...