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| PROJECT:
Soane Street Pavilion |
| LOCATION:
London, UK |
| CLIENT:
Private |
| BUDGET:
Undisclosed |
| COMPETITION:
2007 |
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The
pavilion is a canopy of cut and folded copper sheets held by laminated
glass columns above a row of benches on a stone podium. The canopy projects
slightly out into the apse. At one end, a simple glass enclosure can
be used as a stall for flowers, coffee or news, bringing the impromptu
qualities of daily activity to the pavilion.
The pavilion is designed to have no unseen elevations. The ground itself
is animated by a pattern of shadows. The columns frame other distant
views. The soffit of the canopy is full of filtered moving light and
the roof of the canopy, seen from the buildings above, is a complex
matrix that can be seen against its own shadow.
The canopy has its own changing material and luminous properties with
cast glass, copper, fibreoptics and etched stone.
The benches are carefully designed for solitude, for couples, for flirting
and for dense crowds at lunchtime. The spaces between the benches are
gauged to allow enough distance for a stranger to sit opposite you without
intrusion, but for the possibility of a conversation to occur.
At night the columns will be internally lit using fibre-optics and the
canopy will be carefully floodlit from above. All of the light will
be concentrated into the canopy so that it acts like a softly glowing
lantern and casts even, shadow-free light outwards making a safe feeling
space to walk through. The open ground plane will not allow anyone to
hide and the sideways light will illuminate every ones’ faces.
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