4 of 7 shared their PingPong project with us, which began as a competition entry for the Serbian Pavilion at 12thVenice Biennale of Architecture. The firm has taken the initial ideas and developed them further to complete a second version of the project for the Mixer Design Expo in Belgrade. The idea of the PingPong project is to provide architectural means for spontaneous change of use throughout the exhibition life cycle.
In essence, the exhibition space acts as an open invitation for guests to play a game of table tennis. Playing under an amazing ceiling constructed of one hundred and thirty thousand hollow plastic balls, the visitors experience different spatial organization due to the ceiling’s geometric properties. “21 alcoves may define changing spatial boundaries in support of diverse activities.”
Yet, the project has a stronger foundation than merely enticing people to play a recreational game. The architects are rooted in the desire to experiment with a flexible architecture that can change accordingly to users needs.
“Any spatial configuration becomes suggestive of the events to unfold at that place. Therefore initially planned activities may evolve, become more complex or even change fundamentally over time.”
Although, theoretically, the intention sounds valid , physically, the idea to create an everchanging enviroment seems “contradictory to its material nature.” For instance, as soon as the paritions are established, they cannot merely disappear. ”Built walls define the anatomy of the space, so that any adaptation demands hefty intervention.” With this in mind, the challenge becomes about the means for flexible spatial organisations to enable diverse and simultaneous events within the same environment.
Check out other A of 7 Architecture’s projects featured on AD.
