NEW BUILDINGS
DRIFTWOOD PAVILION, AA STUDENT, LONDON
A new type of architecture has drifted its way into London’s Bedford Square as part of a summer design pavilion competition. This driftwood-like circular structure by AA student Danacia Sibingo is made up of 28 layers of 4mm-thick bent plywood, and includes an interior space open to the air.
The winning student, with fellow students Lyn Hayek, Yoo Jim Kim and Taeyong Lee, will now work with timber manufacturer Finnforest to have the structure ready for the upcoming English summer.
As part of the Bedford Square competition, students submitted 25 initial ideas, which a jury whittled down to just three.
Tutor of the winning students at the AA, Charles Walker, who was also chair of the jury, said the design would be technically challenging to construct. He said the jury had been won over by the “combination of innovation and beauty”.
CHAMBER PAVILION, ZAHA HADID, MANCHESTER
This peel-like pavilion is Zaha Hadid’s lastest release pavilion architecture; one of the architect’s many specialties. The structure was designed by Hadid to appear inside the Manchester Art Gallery, for a series of nine chamber concerts, including recitals of piano, violin and cello solos that were composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The architect has entered the new performance space for this year’s Manchester International Festival, which runs from 2 to 19 July.
The aim is to create a near-perfect environment for the audience to experience of the world’s most beautiful chamber music, the Manchester Festival said. “A union of two originals, three centuries apart.”
This is the not the first time a Hadid pavilion design has stirred some interest. Its travelling exhibition pavilion for Chanel in 2007 was hailed as a celebration of the iconic work of the fashion label, and as unmistakable for its smooth layering of exquisite details that together created an elegant, cohesive whole — just like Chanel, it was said.
PUBLIC SQUARE, WOODHEAD INTERNATIONAL, ADELAIDE
This is Adelaide’s answer to Melbourne’s Federation Square, set in the Royal Adelaide Hospital site, designed to host festival events and fitted with cabling for giant television screen.
The new Adelaide-based square is designed to match Federation Square in Melbourne, which last year became the most visited tourist attraction in Victoria. Health Minister John Hills wants the site of the hospital to be a better version of the Melbourne site, being less “hard-edged” and “commercial”, with more green space and a mix of buildings “with cultural impact”.
Designed by Woodhead, the hospital’s heritage buildings would be handed over the arts and cultural groups, and a mast plan sees the site linking to the Botanic Gardens and the Adelaide Zoo precinct. A more detailed proposals is now being prepared for Cabinet approval. Adelaide’s new green square must then pass the more difficult test of Adelaide’s public opinion.
