The Pavillon Spéciale is an installation designed and built by students of the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture under the direction of Ball-Nogues Studio. The installation can be arched and curled at full scale to form different types of space befitting the university’s summer program. The installation creates a sense of place while providing a respite from the sun and rain.
The pavilion is a unique structure. In architecture terminology, the phrase that describes a system whose form is derived from the deformation of its materials under force is “form active.” This type of structure is difficult to study using software. It often requires architects to explore their designs by testing full-scale mock-ups, and using that empirical information to help inform the process of digital modeling, which is studied in the studio rather than in the field. Students engaged in this iterative design process with Ball-Nogues.
The structure is comprised of approximately 200 “cells”, each made from locally sourced plastic tubing bent and curled in custom jigs designed and constructed by students. To provide shade, each cell has locally sourced fabric membrane spanning between the tubes. The cell module is a very effective way of constructing a temporary structure: each can be transported as a flat unit and rapidly assembled on site; when it is time for the structure to come down, dismantling and transportation to a new site is easy.
project info:
location: ecole spéciale d’architecture
curator pavillon speciale: matteo cainer
project: ball-nogues studio
studio assistant: baptiste bonijoly
ecole spéciale students: antoniotti bruno, bellanger alexandra, bennis selim, boinot julien, bruel laura, budin olivier, cargill maxime,
claudet ariel de lacvivier matthieu, delalande nicolas, dubois nina, ducroux hubert, fishler raphael, fournier adrien, haudrechy felix, hudson leo, lambert pierre,
liagre victoire, maleyrat jean, merle daubigne ariane, mougel raphael, noury pola, pradeau pauline, seguin pauline, veryra camille and wertheimer astrid
Description of the competion:
The Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture enters its 2nd edition of the “Pavillon Spéciale”, an annual spring architectural series that gives young emerging architects the opportunity to build with students, a temporary project in the heart of Paris. Once a year from June to October, The Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture will become an international theatre for architectural experimentation, making it unique in its kind. The timescale (maximum of 3 months from invitation to completion) will provide a unique model that presents a strong synergy between architecture and education and with talks before during and after construction, it will become a contemporary platform for architects, students and the city itself.
The “Pavillon Spéciale” program is curated by Matteo Cainer. Conceived by the later in the summer of 2010, it is an ongoing programme of temporary structures by emerging international architects. The series is unique worldwide because it not only presents the work of an international architect or design team, but is an on site collaboration with a team of students from the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture. Each year a different pavilion will be sited on the school’s inner courtyard, and for five months there will be a programme of public talks, events, performances that will take place in and around the Pavilion.
