niallmclaughlin.com
         
             
 
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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39 - 51 Highgate Road London NW5 1RS UK
 
T: +44 (0) 20 7485 9170 F: +44 (0) 20 7485 9171
  E: info@niallmclaughlin.com