City of Dream Pavilion
2012
Competition Entry
The body is not static. It interacts with the space/surface in a number of different ways. Some bodies may sit on a surface while others may use the same surface for lying reading or snoozing. The gradation of possible profiles of human activities and their combinations creates through ‘Mobius loop’. This ‘Mobius loop’ is warped and distorted according to densities of human activities. Space is open rather than enclosed, temporary rather than permanent, non-linear rather than linear.
Endless Pavilion aims to interact with people. People are allowed not only to touch the flexible plastic tubes but also to sit and lean on it. All these interactions with tubes produce changes in tension, causing the structure to gently sway. Moreover, the Mobius shaped structure would create an illusion between the structure and the people using the space. It blurs the boundary between inside and outside and the boundary would be determined by the threads’ density and by human activity. People can touch the bands and control the degree of openness as the occasion arises. It gives a chance to play with concealing and revealing.
The actual habitation of the space emerges through negotiations between surface and user and may vary with different situations. These interactions provide a large number of possible combination of diverse profiles, through which different space perceptions and different internal environments would be possible. The non-orthogonal geometry allows people to move through with a degree of ambiguity, avoiding conventional norms of behavior and prescribed interpretation.
Even though ‘Endless Pavilion’ encompasses 1,820 sf, it only touches ground through the 25 concrete footings (less than 25 sf). Due to the structures minimal footprint, the majority part of ground is left unharmed and will be recovered within a short amount of time.
The lives of building materials are not fixed conditions, but rather part of a continually evolving enterprise. After the festival, the disassembled structure units could be reused/repurposed for benches, Solar Panels, Shades, Shelters and Signage Boards etc. according to different angles. The Pavilion would become dispersed around the Governors Island and continue as an idea and event.
The light structure makes the pavilion sustainable. It would not require a thick foundation, as it would be a light, freestanding structure. Therefore, a temporary pavilion would be built without damaging historic site conditions of Governors Island. These structures are easy to carry and recycle. In addition, it only requires small quantities of hardware which allow two or three people to assemble the structure within 3 days without the use of special tools.
