1 minute read
PAVILION INTO HIGH-RISE
Sheared Grids
SPRING 2020
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The pavilion is translated into vertical dimension through methods of stacking.
When designing the original pavilion project, the rules that altered the square grid were derived from changes in the landscape (i.e.. elevation); would not these rules hold less relevancy once the project moves up?
As the stacked pavilion ascends, its grid becomes less warped and returns to a pure square at the top. The pavilion’s lateral circulation is best understood as a crossing. Vertical circulation for the stacked pavilion is about transitioning between warped to normal.
The lack of true vertical walls disrupts our default assumptions about wall and floor. When it was a single story pavilion, the frames evoked a mesh roofed shelter. In our stacked pavilion, inhabitants experience the frames as a thicket of abnormal columns. While each shape is different, the floor plates serve the same narrow purpose, to guide the inhabitants across the lot from S. Main street to Water Street. Located in downtown Providence, the combined office building and performance hall with a substantial public component open 24 hours a day.
What if we appeared to adhere to traditional notions of boundaries, while also subverting them? What if our “center stage” and “back stage” inverted the relationship between a public space to its urban context?
