Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The large, temporary, inflatable bubble which the Hirshhorn Museum is planning on erecting for special events has taken another step forward. Speaking at a conference yesterday, Richard Koshalek, the Museum’s director, said that the bubble will be pumped up inside the Museum’s central plaza by October 2012, according to a report on the American Society of Landscape Architect blog The Dirt.

Koshalek also provided some new information on what exactly the temporary event space would be used for:

The bubble that will inflate up out of the central plaza and over the top of the building will provide a “seasonal pavilion” from May to October, and provide space for an “educational, cultural and research forum.” Four programs are in the works, including the first on international cultural diplomacy (to be produced with the Council on Foreign Relations); a second one on open-source technology or how technology drives our culture (to be developed with the MacArthur Foundation); a third on “art and destruction, a common theme throughout history” (to be developed with Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study); and the last one on the world of animation, which will feature commissioned works from leading animators. Koshalek argued that these fora need to be ”interdisciplinary because that’s how the Museum can reach a broader audience.”

That description would appear to clash with previously reported plans that the bubble would only be used for two events in May and October. But, in any case, it looks like full steam ahead for the unique concept — the structure received the thumbs up from both the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission earlier this year.