AA Summer Pavilion 2009

The summer pavilions in front of AA (Architectural Association) are becoming a traditional part of the pre-holiday presentations of student projects. For the fourth time, an unconventional pavilion has enlivened the historic Bedford Square at the end of the school year and created a refreshing solitaire before the entrance to the main school building.
      At the beginning of the event, there was a student competition, with the main motivating factor being the realization of the winning design. In strong competition, the project by Danecie Sibingo, a Spanish third-year student from Intermediate Unit 2, emerged victorious. She was assisted in the realization of the pavilion by her classmates Lyn Hayek, Yoo Jin Kim, and Taeyoung Lee under the academic mentorship of Martin Self and Charles Wolker.
      The main sponsor of the realization was the Finnish wood company Finnforest, which was reflected in the material concept of the pavilion. The overall mass and functional design were left to the creativity of the student, who was inspired by water – a substance whose physical behavior is quite prosaically rendered in the final realization. In the end, the design also considered the environmental aspect. A total of 28 Kerto plywood boards were used in the realization, with an unused cut of 18%. The pavilion's structure is created from profiled cross columns into which individual plywood strips are fitted, creating an impressive spatial formation. The pavilion was first assembled at a workshop in Hooke Park, Dorset, where the school also has its workplace. Before the holidays, the pavilion was disassembled into six parts and transported to London.
      The pavilion creates interesting visual effects and has an impressive composition; however, it does not have a functional purpose. Initial studies featured a model with seating options, but the realized piece does not allow for this activity. This fact has sparked a debate about the practical sense of the pavilion, as well as the form of future pavilions, as rather sculptural works are beginning to be realized in front of AA instead of architecture. So let us be surprised by what revolutionary design the AA students will come up with in their next research.