Funded by an ArtPlace Grant, this multi-functional 1,200 seat cultural pavilion is intended to house film festivals, symposia, lectures, and graduation ceremonies. The design is based on the illusion of figures pushing outwards into a loose outer skin resulting in mysterious distortions and formal fall-off effects.
Three-dimensional mass effects are enhanced by two-dimensional tattoos inscribed into the most intensely stretched areas; however, the relation between mass and tattoos is a loose, non-parametric one. Existing as separate entities rather than as a sub-system, tattoos slip and drift over mass edges and create ambiguity in the reading of the mass.
The construction is based on supercomponents, or the idea that chunk-logic is as relevant to the 21st century as frame-and-infill logic was to the 20th century. Commonly used for encapsulating helicopters and tanks, industrial shrink wrap tightly encapsulates box-like frames made of rolled aluminum pipe and nylon straps. Components are fabricated on the ground as volumetric, stiff chunks—complete with tattoos—and then lifted into place and spliced together structurally.
Client: SCI-Arc/ Eric Moss
Type: Pavilion
Size: 6,000 SF
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