See the Ball, Be the Ball

When most people think of New Zealand, they picture a bucolic land of farmers, sheepherders and would-be philosophers on walkabout. However, on the rugby pitch, the New Zealand rugby team – also known as the “All Blacks” because of their uniforms and hard-hitting style – takes a decidedly less pastoral demeanor that begins with its fearsome, pre-match “haka,” which derives from an aboriginal war dance.

This national dedication to the “rogues’ game played by gentlemen,” as ST Publisher/Editor and former “#8” Wade Swormstedt calls it, helped the “Kiwis” earn the right to host the next Rugby World Cup in 2011. To promote this milestone, New Zealand’s Ministry of Tourism commissioned the production of an 82 x 12 x 13-ft., walk-in, inflatable fabric structure shaped like a rugby ball that will be installed at rugby match sites worldwide until the World Cup arrives.

Los Angeles-based Inside Out Productions, the project’s general contractor, hired Fabric Shelter Systems (Whangarei, New Zealand) to produce the structure. The shop used Ferrari Textiles’ Precontraint® 502 textile membrane, a five-year textile with a two-sided varnish that’s also fully recyclable, thanks to Ferrari’s Texyloop® system, which breaks down PVC-textile components. Using high-frequency welding, the shop assembled the fabric and created the graphic on self-adhesive, cut-vinyl lettering designed using AutoCAD software.

To support the structure, Fabric Shelter Systems installed the fabric on a wooden platform that’s weighed down by 24-ton water containers covered with green tarps colored to replicate the pitch. Two revolving doors serve as the structure’s point of entry, and interior, carbon-dioxide monitors regulate air purity. Inside, a 15-minute, continuous-loop film touts New Zealand’s tourist attractions.

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After a test installation in Auckland, Fabric Shelter Systems shipped the structure to Paris, where it displayed during last year’s Rugby World Cup. Although the All Blacks suffered a galling defeat to the French side during the competition (unlike soccer, France isn’t regarded as a rugby hotbed), their home country gained a valuable promotion for its forthcoming spot on the world sporting stage.