“The Canopy”, a collaborative project between NEXT Architects, Amsterdam and MASS Studies, Seoul for the invited competition for a student pavilion at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Additional images of the proposal and a narrative from the designers after the break.
LIGHT HOUSING: continuity and openness The designated location for the pavilion is characterized by the horizontal continuity of a leaf canopy of the surrounding trees and provides very desirable condition for meeting within the campus of the Erasmus University (EUR). With the involvement of this exceptional environment by the new pavilion we commit to provide for the continuation of the existing spatial qualities of continuity and openness within a ‘canopy’.
KEY: centrality and motion The central position that involves the pavilion on campus, can be compared to an atom consisting of a visible nucleus, but whose real influence is much greater and is determined by the constantly moving electrons in the surrounding shells. The pavilion will serve as the focal point of meeting and knowledge. In this the activities and events in the building not only work as a catalyst for a lively interpretation inside the building, but will also serve as a stimulus for movements around the site. Adapting to and match the horizontal and vertical connections that occur in response to the complex but promising contextual starting positions, is central to the current design.
DURABILITY: stratification and intelligence A shelter under the roof of a subtle filtered light also generates energy, the construction makes the improbable possible: a transparent glass building as an icon of durability. The secret is hidden in a layered structure of climatic zones temperature constant at a moderate intelligently. This mass is created where needed and used wherever possible light and transparent, this strategy blocked the theater partly underground and made it into a buffer for temperature differences in the pavilion.
