Turning Point

University of Bath, 2017
Professor: Martin Gledhill

This is a proposal for a pavilion celebrating the process of making through a journey of trial and error. It is an ode to the design process. The brief called for a demountable travelling pavilion that would celebrate the art of making. The first site for the pavilion is in Weymouth, Southern England, where it will then go on to travel around the UK. The art of making is a process shrouded in mystery. We all strive to make great things in an artful way, but what is the process that gets us there? We were fascinated by the design process and wanted to explore how we could represent it spatially. Immersed within our own design process, we developed a scheme that attempts to represent this process of trial and error. The pavilion takes the visitor on a derive - a journey that is not straight-forward but instead lingers on those moments of error and celebrates them. As the visitor makes their way through the building, the exhibition becomes more and more refined, as do the spaces themselves - tying together the spatial experience with the exhibited objects.

Team: Sung Yeop Lim, Leo Leung, Sonya Falkovskaia with Katerina Barahova, Anthea Siu, Sheldon Wang

The proposal’s integral feature is its ability to transform and adapt to any given site. Constructed of 8 boxes connected by 4 pivots, the boxes can create an unlimited number of forms responding to the brief’s requirement of making a demountable travelling pavilion.

Site

Weymouth, UK

The proposal is configured based on the following parameters - access, axis, sunlight, scenic views and wind. Weymouth peninsula has apparent random organisation of spaces that have developed organically over time creating various axis’.

Structural overview

The trusses are clad in two layers of mesh panels that change in distance depending on season and location. South-facing trusses have the panels closer together to get more natural sunlight. However, if an exhibition requires lower light levels, the panels can be moved apart.

Image by Sung Yeop Lim

There are four ‘hinges’ - each connecting 3 tubes vertically and allowing for free configuration of the overall structure. The longitudinal and transverse beams surrounding each void are sized as transfer beams - taking the weight of half the truss above down to the foundations.

Image by Sung Yeop Lim

Tectonic moel

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