Fatal art sculpture was 60s dream

Visitors wore capes and wandered inside the inflatable sculpture

The inflatable sculpture in which two women died when it lifted off the ground was designed by Maurice Agis to be a maze of colour and sound.

The first version of Dreamspace was created in 1996 to blend "space, movement, colour and sound".

Made from thin sheets of PVC and configured into 115 identical cubicles, Dreamspace debuted in Copenhagen.

Since 1996 its subsequent incarnations successfully and safely toured the UK, Spain and Italy.

Visitors had to remove their shoes, wear capes and wander round inflated walkways to specially-composed music and sounds.

Agis was born in London in 1931, and taught in the UK and Holland.

His works won international acclaim, with successful exhibits and commissions in the United States, Australia and Holland.

The Dreamspace project evolved as far back as the 1960s with Agis's stated aim to make them "three-directional" involving human movement and interactivity.

The sculpture consisted of several interconnected rooms

In the 1960s he formed a partnership with fellow artist Peter Jones and for the next 12 years they worked to create artworks which would eventually evolve into Dreamspace.

According to Agis's website: "They sought to create spaces whose function was aesthetic and the stimulation of the senses in the viewer, providing the public with a release from the chaos and fragmentation of the senses in daily urban life."

After many incarnations Dreamspace eventually a massive air-filled maze standing 5m high when fully inflated by industrial-sized blowers.

It was tethered to the ground with guy ropes and dozens of pegs hammered into the ground.

Dreamspace received £60,000 from the Arts Council for its last UK tour, which took in Liverpool before travelling to Chester-le-Street.

The artwork was co-owned by Maurice Agis and Liverpool-based production company Brouhaha International, for which the artist's son Giles worked as executive director.