Zumthor's 2011 Pavilion |
The Serpentine Pavilion of 2011 was designed by the very
famous Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
Peter Zumthor has long been one of my favorite architects, after I did a
case study on his building Therme Vals in Switzerland, and discovered how he
designs his works. Upon seeing the 2011
pavilion it is easy to tell that it was designed by Zumthor, because in my
opinion, he has a very distinct style.
Like Therme Vals, the 2011 pavilion is a minimalist structure, yet it
has a very high level of sophistication within its design. He designs his buildings to feel like a cave,
like they have been excavated from the top down, rather than built from the
ground up. I think that his pavilion is
quite successful in creating this feeling.
The hallway around the open center is completely dark,
except for a few voids that allow in dashes of light, giving the interior
spaces the feeling of being inside a cave.
There is not one main entrance to get inside of the pavilion, but
several entrances on each side creating a sense of equality between all of the
facades of the building. Zumthor’s
building looks like an entirely concrete structure but is actually made mostly
of wood. It displays very simple facades,
putting the focus not on the building but on what is inside, which is a
beautiful and specially designed garden for the pavilion.
Light and Dark |
One of my favorite things about this building is the
complete different experience a visitor will get as they move through the
building. The exterior of the building is plain, but the entrances draw the
visitor in to the first layer of the building where they will feel enclosed and
I imagine almost a little bit uneasy. But
then they reach the very interior of the building where they find a garden that is open to the sky, and a completely different
space/experience from the rest of the building.
In all of Zumthor’s buildings, he focuses on the sensorial and spiritual
aspects of architecture, trying to make the visitors feel connected with the
spaces they are in. I think that this
pavilion is very successful in this way.
For my drawings and cutting I wanted to try to emulate this feeling of going from a very enclosed space to a very open one, and the differences between these two kinds of spaces. I found through my analysis that the building almost creates a journey to the center of itself. Zumthor used light, shadow, and scale to make a person feel the difference in the two main spaces of the building.
For my drawings and cutting I wanted to try to emulate this feeling of going from a very enclosed space to a very open one, and the differences between these two kinds of spaces. I found through my analysis that the building almost creates a journey to the center of itself. Zumthor used light, shadow, and scale to make a person feel the difference in the two main spaces of the building.
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