Design Map · Eindhoven
Feet on the Ground, Head in the Clouds
Graduation project by Louella Exton at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
As Earth’s atmosphere becomes increasingly unstable and unpredictable, testing the infrastructures used to observe and model it, ‘Feet on the Ground, Head in the Clouds’ operates between architecture and meteorology, rethinking relationships between sensors, ground, sky and people. By bringing researchers together around a meteorological test station, the project reframes atmospheric observation as a situated, communal practice focused on present conditions rather than future prediction. Existing instruments are reworked to image the atmosphere from the ground up, addressing low-resolution gaps in satellite-driven data. Emphasising “ground truth” in cloud observation, designer Louella Exton explores a localised model structured by flight paths, revealing ephemeral phenomena often missed from orbit. The project advocates for a more experimental, human-operated approach to weather observation, one that values ground-based practice not only for the data it produces, but for the communities it can build.