The idea for an outdoor canopy to provide additional space for working and socialising was originally proposed by first year students as part of a competition and was then developed by City Form Lab, an architectural research lab at the university.

A low-cost gridshell made from 3000 unique plywood panels creates a vaulted form with no internal walls or columns and is clad in 600 hexagonal steel tiles.

To reduce costs, the architects developed customised software to create components that could be made using simple two-dimensional cutting machines.

A single drawing and ID numbers engraved on each of the plywood pieces and steel tiles provided a guide for students to assemble the components before local contractors erected the structure on site.

"We were quite worried that once everything was cut and put together the pieces wouldn't fit," Andres Sevtsuk, principal investigator at City Form Lab told Dezeen. "As a pleasant surprise, everything fitted quite well on site. Automating the drawing generation and cutting all elements on computer-controlled machines reduced the human error margins and made the small tolerances possible."

Bolts and screws were used to assemble the modules, so the pavilion can be dismantled and recycled when the university moves to a new campus at the end of 2014.

Last week we published the first pictures of Sou Fujimoto's cloud-like Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, while an inflatable pavilion based on a twisted ring shape is currently residing in a museum garden in London – see all pavilions

Daniel Libeskind was in the news last week when he refuted allegations that he received unlawful payments for designing a university building in Germany, while Herzog & de Meuron has been awarded planning permission for a new building at the University of Oxford – see all architecture for education.

Photography is by Philipp Aldrup, except where stated otherwise.

Here's a project description from the architects:

The library pavilion offers a shaded open-air place to work, meet and mingle for students and staff at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). At night it becomes a place for gatherings, evening lectures and SUTD community events. Work-desks, mobile bookshelves and wireless Internet make it a "third space" between the dormitory and the classroom where intellectual and social exchange occurs in a casual atmosphere.

The gridshell was built at a low cost using flat plywood members and galvanized steel cladding. There are no columns, beams, or vertical walls to support the roof. The canopy forms a lightweight timber shell that works as a catenary vault. A numeric hanging-chain model was used to determine the precise shape that follows the lines of thrust and works efficiently in compression.

Unlike steel gridshells, it has no complex three-dimensional joints or beams – all of its elements are strictly cut from flat sheet material. 3,000 unique plywood panels forming 1,000 triangles and 600 unique hexagonal cladding tiles were assembled by SUTD students, and erected on site by the contractor. All components of the canopy were fabricated on CNC machines in Singapore. The assembly of the entire structure required only one drawing – the numeric map of a three-dimensional puzzle indicating which pieces fit next to which other pieces. ID numbers were engraved in the cutting process on each plywood and cladding element, which remain visible in the finished structure as ornament.

The pavilion is designed to be dismantled and recycled after two years.

Design: City Form Lab
Engineering: ARUP
Construction: Arina International Hogan (AIH) and SUTD students
Sponsorships: AIH builders, Autodesk, ARUP.
Completion: May 2013

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by City Form Lab appeared first on Dezeen.

A continuous white tube twists and undulates to create a three-armed form that visitors can walk or sit underneath and climb on top of.

"The design of the structure is a simple topological deformation of a torus and the shape was mathematically generated," the architects told us.

The clear plastic sheet stretched over the top and attached with zips forms a springy surface, which can be reached by clambering up one of the sections that touch the ground.

An anodised aluminium platform with the same plan as the inflated structure forms the base, anchored to the ground at six points around the edge.

Atelier Zündel Cristea's design won first prize in a summer pavilion competition organised by ArchTriumph.

It is located in Museum Gardens in the east London area of Bethnal Green, next to the Museum of Childhood, and will be in place until 16 June.

Over in west London, this year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by Sou Foujimoto was unveiled earlier this week. See the first photos of the structure here, additional images here and watch our interview with Fujimoto here.

Our other stories that feature blow-up design include the entrance to last year's Design Miami fair that was covered by inflatable sausages and a balloon shaped like a naked fat man pressed up against a gallery window.

See more inflatable architecture and design »
See more pavilion design »

Photography is by Sergio Grazia.

The architects sent us the following information:

Enhancing the experience of the city does not always require projects of significant cost and time, but can often come about as the result of modest, temporary interventions and events, in key places, at chosen times.

Our office is dedicated to the conception of interventions likely to appeal to city residents, transforming the way in which they view the places around them and the practices possible in their cities.

Human beings carry within them nostalgia of a primordial happiness from ancient times. The notion of a return to these origins of happiness is often associated with Nature.

Our intention is to encourage inhabitants to participate in fun, uncommon events taking place within the urban landscape: an inflatable bridge equipped with giant trampolines rises above the Seine, a pavilion erected in a London park, a museum traversed by a roller coaster.

These projects offer, in the heart of the city, new forms of Elysian Fields, given over not to the Champs-Élysées of shopping and strictly urban activities, but rather to fundamental human practices, which liberate strong emotions calling on all our senses.

The site of this competition is the Museum Gardens, Cambridge Heath Road in Bethnal Green, London. It lies within the Tower Hamlets and Hackney boroughs. The gardens are on the English Heritage Register for Historic Parks and Gardens. It is approximately 1.05 hectares in size and is surrounded by: Cambridge Heath Road, Museum Passage, V&A Museum of Childhood, St John’s Church and Victoria Park Square. The site’s main use is as a recreational garden for living, working and visiting communities. Given it’s prominence within the community it serves, it is clear to us that it is important that the most is made of the site through our pavilion.

Our project responds to the desire to create a temporary transportable pavilion for the summer of 2013 in such a public space, with a need for inclusion, socializing, relaxation, discussion, reflection, escape, view and enjoyment of a high quality space.

It will provide an inspirational space where visiting architects, designers, families and the general public can stand and sit whilst admiring, embracing diversity and engaging with each other in discussions about design, the importance and benefits of peace and co-existence, or even novel stories they have to tell in a peaceful setting.

The Museum Gardens, and nature in general are the perfect settings to promote the idea of peace, to encourage the sharing of joyful stories and provoking discussions about architecture and design.

We propose a Pavilion which is visually and aesthetically engaging. We think it is capable of providing an ideal contemporary space which offers a sense of tranquility, beauty and an exceptional aesthetic value to the very heart of the Museum Gardens.

Peace is one of the highest possible human ideals. It is a state of equilibrium; it means NO WAR, but also harmony, silence, pureness, kindness, happiness, appeasement, calm, reconciliation, serendipity, tranquility…

To express all of these ideas, we have created a perfect and symmetrical sculpture, obtained by a precise geometrical manipulation. The beauty of the shape lies in its perfect symmetry and fluidity; we feel there is no need to explain it a great deal as it is a pavilion that speaks to everyone. It allows visitors looking at the volume for a split second to get a sense of the pavilion and its layout with minimum effort.

The symmetrical geometry of the pavilion blurs our notions of inside and outside, however the simple act of motion through the exterior and interior spaces of the pavilion bringing an understanding to the visitor.

The Pavilion is 4 meters in height and 20 square metres in area. Designed entirely with lightweight materials – 77.96m² of PVC membrane and 20m3 of air - our project is a self-supporting structure; it is easily scalable to inhabit larger dimensions of other sites.

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Atelier Zündel Cristea appeared first on Dezeen.

"The inspiration started from the beautiful surroundings," Fujimoto says. "I was so impressed by the beautiful green surroundings, so I tried to create in this green environment something between nature and architecture, tried to create a transparent sturcture that melts into the background."

To achieve this, Fujimoto created his pavilion from a white lattice of steel poles, with variations in density creating a structure that appears more or less transparent depending on where you stand.

"The grid itself is quite straight, rigid and quite artificial," he says. "But when you have such a huge amount, it becomes more like an organic cloud-like or forest-like [structure].

"I was fascinated by such a beautiful contrast [beween] the really sharp, artificial white grids and the organic, formless experience."

Fujimoto goes on to reveal that it took him a while to work out how protect visitors to the pavilion from the rain. "We couldn't put a roof on [it] because it would spoil this beautiful structure," he says. "Finally we had the idea to use polycarbonate transparent discs," which slot in between the gaps in the lattice.

The polycarbonate tiles are not just to provide shelter, Fujimoto says. "Sometimes, if the wind is coming, [the roof] starts to swing and [creates] a more soft atmosphere, and a beautiful contrast with the grid."

See our earlier story for more images of Sou Fujimoto's pavilion »

See all our stories about the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions »
See more architecture by Sou Fujimoto »

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nature and architecture" appeared first on Dezeen.

Unveiled this morning, Sou Fujimoto's design features a cloud-shaped grid of steel poles with varying density.

The sticks part to form two doorways and visitors can climb up onto transparent ledges within the structure.

They can also sit at cafe tables and chairs underneath, sheltered from above by a layer of transparent plastic discs.

The pavilion will open to the public from Saturday and remain in front of the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens until 20 October 2013.

Dezeen published the first photos of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 from the press preview this morning, where Fujimoto explained how he wanted to "create a nice mixture of nature and architecture," adding "that has been the great interest for me these last ten years."

See more architecture by Sou Fujimoto on Dezeen, including a house that looks like scaffolding and a library with shelves on the outside.

The annual unpaid Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commission is one of the highlights in world architecture and goes to a high-profile architect who has not yet built in the UK. At 41, Fujimoto is the youngest to have accepted the invitation.

Past commissions include Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, Peter Zumthor, Jean Nouvel, SANAA and Frank Gehry.

See our handy guide to all the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions »
Watch our interviews with Herzog & de Meuron at last year's opening »
Watch our interview with Peter Zumthor in 2011 »

Photographs are by Jim Stephenson.

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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion appeared first on Dezeen.

The cloud-like structure on the lawn outside the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens is made from a white lattice of steel poles.

The grid varies in density, framing or obscuring the surrounding park by different degrees as visitors move around it. Circles of transparent polycarbonate amongst the poles afford shelter from the rain but also create a layer that reflects sunlight from within.

"I tried to create something - of course really artificial - but nicely melding together with these surroundings, to create a nice mixture of nature and architecture," said Sou Fujimoto at the press conference this morning.

"This grid is really artificial, sharp, transparent order, but the whole atmosphere made by grids is more blurring and ambiguous, like trees or a forest or clouds. So we can have the beautiful duality of the artificial order and natural order," he added.

The lattice parts in the middle to house seating for a cafe. It will open to the public on Saturday and remain in place until 20 October.

The annual unpaid Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commission is one of the most highly sought-after small projects in world architecture and goes to a major architect who hasn't yet built in the UK.

Last year's pavilion was a cork-lined archaeological dig created by Herzog & de Meuron with Ai Weiwei. Dezeen filmed interviews with Herzog & de Meuron at the opening, where Jacques Herzog told us how they sidestepped the regulations to be allowed to participate and Pierre de Meuron explained how cork was used to appeal to "all the senses, not just your eyes".

In 2011 it was a walled garden by Peter Zumthor, who told us at the opening: "I’m a passionate architect... I do not work for money". Watch that movie here.

Past projects by Sou Fujimoto include a house that has hardly any walls, another with three layers of windows and a library with shelves on the exterior. See our slideshow of Sou Fujimoto's key projects or check out all our stories about his work.

See all our stories about the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions »
See more architecture by Sou Fujimoto »

Here's some more information from the Serpentine Gallery:

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 is designed by multi award-winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. He is the thirteenth and, at 41, the youngest architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary structure for the Serpentine Gallery. The most ambitious architectural programme of its kind worldwide, the Serpentine’s annual Pavilion commission is one of the most anticipated events on the cultural calendar. Past Pavilions have included designs by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei (2012), Frank Gehry (2008), Oscar Niemeyer (2003) and Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural structure in 2000.

Widely acknowledged as one of the most important architects coming to prominence worldwide, Sou Fujimoto is the leading light of an exciting generation of architects who are re-inventing our relationship with the built environment. Inspired by organic structures, such as the forest,Fujimoto’s signature buildings inhabit a space between nature and artificiality.

Fujimoto has completed the majority of his buildings in Japan, with commissions ranging from the domestic, such as Final Wooden House, T House and House N, to the institutional, such as the Musashino Art Museum and Library at Musashino Art University.

Occupying some 357 square-metres of lawn in front of the Serpentine Gallery, Sou Fujimoto’s delicate, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles has a lightweight and semi-transparent appearance that allows it to blend, cloud-like, into the landscape against the classical backdrop of the Gallery’s colonnaded East wing. Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose social space – with a café run for the first time by Fortnum and Mason inside – visitors will be encouraged to enter and interact with the Pavilion in different ways throughout its four-month tenure in London's Kensington Gardens.

Fujimoto is the third Japanese architect to accept the invitation to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, following Pritzker Prize winners Toyo Ito in 2002 and Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA in 2009.

AECOM have provided engineering and technical design services for the Pavilion for 2013. David Glover, AECOM’s global chief executive for building engineering, has worked on the designs of many previous Pavilions.

Sponsored by: HP
With: Hiscox
Advisors: AECOM
Platinum Sponsors: Rise, Viabizzuno progettiamo la luce

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by Sou Fujimoto appeared first on Dezeen.