Second and third year architecture students at the Architectural Association school in London have completed this year's AA Summer Pavilion, called the Swoosh Pavilion.
The structure is located outside the AA in Bedford Square and coincides with the London Festival of Architecture, which runs until this weekend.
In what is turning out to be something of a glut of pavilions, Swoosh joins the [c]space Pavilion (above), which is also located in Bedford Square. See our previous story for more info about this one.
Photographs by Richard Green. Here's a bit of text from the London Festival of Architecture:
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The Swoosh Pavilion is the 2008 AA Summer Pavilion built annually by the second and third year students of Intermediate Unit 2 tutored by Charles Walker and Martin Self. For the students who conceive, design and construct the pavilion it’s a phenomenological exercise, going from idea to design and finally realization.
is this geometrical effort (money, time, construction calculation) for what?
it's a pavilion. FOR FASHION
Yawn! Why do you even look at these websites if your so negative about design? These kind of structures are about tectonic sculpture and are built (for one of many reasons) to explore the progression and the capabilities of new technology in architecture. Did you even go to an architectural or design school to learn about these basic principals? Do you even know anything about this subject, that takes years of training and learning to even be able to build something with the complexity of the example, or do you just make petty and dull comments?
I’ve seen CAD Cam designs that don’t even come close to measuring up with this project, especially from 2nd and 3rd year students. The scale seems considerably appropriate and the form of the egg crate is far more expressive, stimulating, and useful when compared to most digital design projects.
Well done.
buff enough
I really like this – it looks different from all angles! At times I was thinking snake skin scales, others crochet… It’s very evocative. Like the little girls in the first picture I just want to touch it and climb on it!
very nice ;-)
very nice sharp edges! dont blink when walking,
just stare from a distance and lust on its beauty. visually engaging, bodily disengaging.
….You want to touch and climb on the little girls….?!
money&time wasted…
money, time & construction calculation, NOT WASTED dude, how long your senses can have the opportunity to feel that space and form for real, in real size, not as another project on your hard drive.
maybe you will go, take a look, another look, and admit that is a very good exercise.
remember that this is a pavilion not a office building or another building with a exact purpose.
AND yes, experiments involves money & time.
“how long your senses can have the opportunity to feel that space and form for real, in real size, not as another project on your hard drive. ”
i like these language experiments
Very very nice and creative:::::::::::::::::
MARCOS does not justify spending a euro more on anything outside of the purely functional. He’s probably an engineer enamored with the tried and true calculus of today, which was yesteryears experimentation and wanton money squandering.
Fuller would have balked at such commentary.
great project, truly beautiful. Such a great effort by all the students of complex simplicity.
P.S. Ms Zahaha take notes and stop polluting the world with your ugly buildings…
just afraid that schools are far from the reality. very nice big model but it will be better to show more critics to the reality? or is just advertisemnt for the school?
see ps1 pavillon from work ac
it reminds me of the Siza and Souto de Moura pavillion for the serpentine gallery.
Dont really understand why this pavillion got so much more attention in the press than the space pavillion which just looks so much better in reality. Only problem with both of them is neither of them are going to keep the rain off. . . . .
Ha, money and time wasted. You boring tools are banished. Marcos and vvv, go and buy some grey paint together.
Ummmm, is it just me or don’t they ALL look the same? Over these years AA has been pushing their students to keep producing these geometries with NO functionality, NO sustainability, NO narrative, NO poetic, NO relation to the users of the space, NO relation to the site, context etc… it is barely a “pretty” structure/sculpture people!
Very beautiful.
what s up?
sam: it’s also to give a chance to the students to explore digital fabrications. afterall, AA’s main job is to educate their students, not the public.
i dig this a lot… modern craft… its what architecture is facing in desertion… most of the comtemporary stuffs looks just soo simple and dull… but this one… entertaining and clean… very nice… very very nice… thumbs ups
Seems too heavy and thick. Compare to the ethereal Technicolor Bloom.
It’s an amazing structure you just can’t help yourself from touching it. I spent monday in the sun photographing it, what a joy, pics on my site when feature has been published soon.
Looks like a tech-rip-off of Alvaro Siza’s Serpentine pavilion!
form follows money..
I like this a lot. Mind opening!! Very sexy.. Maybe it looks like this or that.. But remember folks, these are the works of year 3 and 4 students.. They’ll get better over the years. ;)
Once these guys go out of school they’ll have one of two options: Spend daddy’s money or look for a job and do real usable stuff. Sorry for being a party pooper… but that’s how it is. Oh, you can also change your profession…
good work , id love to see the student projects of those nay saying fannies
The show has begin.
Irrelevant architecture needs show. Needs to impact in the media.
!Look at me look at me !
Marcos, it is about CRAFT. Reconnecting designing with making. One mustn’t lose sight of the fact that architecture is MADE by someone. Often a much more interesting person than the DESIGNER. The crartsman is healty and lives outdoor rewarded by the tactile fruits of his labour while the designer clicks his mouse indoor becoming excited by the radiant light of his plasma monitor. Archiecture must have a SOUL. Try to get out more.
finally a coherent feedback :D
Some people think that architecture students should build useful sheds, but no poetry. I think that students should try utopias for them to be able get to new places in space.
its looks like it cost a lot of money n time…
but vry stunning… love the wavy pattern …
I very much agree with Jmax, Helen & Olgv.
AA may be creating some egoistic architects but give it a good thought this is a summer pavilion and hence not meant to keep the rain off. The vertical roof membranes provide a certain thickness which decreases heating of the space below which would be the case if the roof was designed with negligible thickness. The pavilion design is so organic taking its cue from the trees, looking like a stem with stooping branches.
How many students beyond 3rd year and architects have done better job than this? Its this better than just making a model on the table. They have taken their experiment outside. Appreciate it.
its amazing work specially when it says from 2nd year students..
congrax and thanx
Does anybody know which company manufactured the Swoosh Pavilion?
Think the students may have done all in house. cnc, laser cutters and laminating etc.