Architectural paradigms

Acknowledgment

Botanical Pavilion

A 30,000m2 pavilion designed by a chinese studio Penda for horticultural expo in Beijing, China is considered as an important example to study and analyse. The project is situated on the threshold between the urban city and a forested area, is set to be transformed into a residential area to benefit from the privileged location. as such, the pavilion was designed as a fully modular, prefabricated and decentralized series of structures. instead of a singular building on a site, a thousand yards establishes an invisible grid which develops clusters of five principle uses for the expo and gradually blends them together.

The circulation inside the site is free and multiple public squares corresponding to different activities makes the project engaging. The modular units of 8m x 8m square. built of cross-laminated timber beams fabricated off site and assembled in place, the structures can grow horizontally and vertically to accommodate an increased need for space. also importantly, the modules can be deconstructed and recycled elsewhere resulting in virtually zero waste. this is important not only to the functions hosted in the pavilion itself but also for its readaptation after the expo has finished. Visitors constantly emerge within the site and interact with the built green landscape, the concept of waiting in lines to see a certain event has been erased.

Fig. 26 Facing page. Aereal image of the Project Fig. 25 Interweaving of Architecture and Landscape

Feeding the Planet

Austria- ‘Naturally yours’

The Austrian Pavilion for the Expo 2015 in Milano, designed and eaten by its visitors. It was proposed by Penda and Alexander Daxböck. It becomes an important example to study because it incorporates nature with modular grid system.

The concept of the Austrian Expo Pavilion 2015 is based on a wooden structural frame asking for the visitor’s creativity to seed plants on its structure and the space inbetween to transform the pavilion into an object taken over by organic food during the duration of the Expo. With the seeding, growing and harvesting of the plants by its’ visitors, the pavilion will be in a constant change of appereance during the seven months of the exhibition. At the beginning of the Expo, the pavilion will be more or less a ‘naked’ structural grid of 3.6m, executed in a quadriple timber construction with a squared profile of 8cm length. A modular system based on a regular grid, enables the pavilion on the one hand to react easily on an increasing number of visitors by implementing more timbers and more pots and on the other hand to be quickly constructed/ deconstructed and reused afterwards or parts of it. Being a main part of this transformation and experiencing the exhibition with all the senses, should create a bond between the visitors and the pavilion and treasure Austria‘s position as a place for healthy, high quality products and a sustainable way of production.

Fig. 29 Facing page. View of the Pavillion Fig. 27 Process of construction