“Los Arcos”

ARCHITECTURE

Los Arcos is a proposal for a temporary pavilion in MileEnd, Montreal during the summer. The aim is to restore outdoor urban spaces for events. The pavilion is designed to be open and adaptable, suitable for gatherings, artistic events, and small festivals.

Inspired by the area’s strategic use of setbacks, the pavilion was divided into three components - the gallery, cafe/bar, and toilets - each component is set back and apart from the others to create the patios.

The patios intend to set a surrealist ambiance in which reality and fantasy blend - reality being the physical space and fantasy being the purpose set by the visitor’s desires. The arches and arch forms used in the pavilion’s architecture delimit the openness to the patios and inviting new perspectives from within them.

* Featured in McGill Architecture Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoC2JbqLD_r/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Concept Drawing

Conceptual site plan

Analysis of the different patio uses

Tune is an activation space of sound archives, specifically the FF Files archive - an intersectional feminist sound media collective. The space aims to draw attention to our current modes of listening by exploring the concept of “tuning” to sound, which was born out of a spatial experiment and is conceptualized in the parti. The purpose of our space is to change how people approach listening, as it is often an underrated sense

The structure is an agglomeration of domes, recalling the theory behind the sound manipulation and distribution of whispering walls. Each dome holds an independent sound, and where they meet, the sounds will bleed together. When the perimeter of the domes is left untouched, the sound will bleed minimally with other sounds. The 10th dome has been proportionally isolated from the others to allow for a space where no other sounds will bleed. Depending on the intensity of the bleed between sounds, the user will have to put in enough effort to tune in to the sound of their choice and tune out the rest. Our intention behind merging the domes together is to present visitors with different modes of listening: communal, individual, and isolated.

Our project creates a seamless spatial experience for users to explore our display system. Through movement, they are presented with a collection from which they can choose the sound and the way they would like to listen to it.

** Whispering walls are acoustic structures that use curved surfaces to direct and amplify sound.