Competition entry for a pavilion in the design festival Tent London
The pavilion as an architectural typology built purely for pleasure is an anomaly in today age. Our design attempts to resurrect this venerable ancestor of modern day shopping malls in an unexpected and quirky manner. Viewed at the correct angle it becomes evident that within the brutal elegance of the modernist box is concealed a romance and refinement of the past.For within the louvers is set the life size model of the Ladies Pavilion in New York’s Central Park showing the remarkable journey of the Victorian pavilion.
The pavilion uses the FACIT timber cassette system as its main structure with a cladding of plywood louvres. These are CNC milled and assembled as composite units with a central pivot anchored to the frame. This flexible skin rotates and dematerialises the box allowing the intended variety of usage. Closed, the pavilion compacts itself into a conference box opening progressively into an exhibition space and eventually reclaiming its historic use as a place of relaxation and retreat from the summer heat. The adjacent setting with the canal and vegetation provide the picturesque backdrop for the ‘summerhouse’.
With architect Sonal Singh, India.