ETH Pavilion

The ETH pavilion was built for the Ideas City festival in New York City in the summer of 2015. The starting point of this pavilion was to demonstrate that good structural form — stability through geometry — allows building with weak materials, more extremely “building with waste”. The context of the invited commission was a perfect fit: to design a temporary installation/pavilion to host events and lectures for the festival, which lasts only three days, and to be built on a public park.

The duration of the festival, as well as the location and budget for the pavilion, presented the design team with very challenging constraints. These constraints would define, but not limit, the design and construction of the pavilion. The pavilion was designed to be built in the First Street park, and as such, the park could not remain closed to the public for more than 3 days for assembly or demolition. The parks department of the city of New York would also not allow for any anchoring of the pavilion to the ground, or to the walls on its boundaries. The pavilion would only stand for 3 days.

Location: New York City, USA Year: 2015

Credits

• Block Research Group — ETH Zürich
• Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel — ETH Zürich

Press

• Dezeen
• Azure Magazine