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Architects: Cook Haffner Architecture Platform
- Area: 120 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Cong Ding, Fiona Castiñeira
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Lead Architects: Sir Peter Cook
Text description provided by the architects. An innovative and delightful pavilion at the World Architecture Festival is the most recent collaboration between CHAP, led by architect futurologist Sir Peter Cook, and the leading digital technology company ABB. Cook Haffner Architecture Platform (known as CHAP) has recently been commissioned by ABB to design an innovative and delightful ‘Judges and Speakers Lounge’ for the World Architecture Festival (known as WAF) taking place between 30th December and 2nd of January 2022 at Feira Internacional de Lisboa. As the first major event post-pandemic, Katrin Förster of ABB said ‘…this meant for me that ABB´s long-established headline partnership with WAF would have to become something to “grasp”, to “feel” and “experience” again during this year´s live event. Therefore, we needed to find a new spirit, a new excitement, a brand new approach, to come back with a big bang …..’
‘Sir Peter and his team at CHAP were delighted to start designing. And what a fabulous lounge has been conceived. Bold with intense green elements, walls that curve and twist, different layers, lit from below, and peepholes to catch a glimpse. In addition, colorful excerpts from drawings by Sir Peter and project renderings. Superb!’
The eventful space is designed to be visually appealing and eye-catching, with ‘necks’ and ‘beaks’ popping out from the casket and skin, also being highly visible from distance in the busy festival landscape. The role of Peter’s drawings is reconsidered and being experimented with here – they become part of the architecture, along with the peek-holes, not only connecting the inside and the outside but also merging the interactive experience with the playful architecture. Quotes from architect Sir Peter Cook; The Speakers and Judges Lounge for WAF Lisbon was designed to accommodate forty or more people sitting at tables. The team of Cong Ding, Pablo Wheldon, and Ronghua Lei, working under the Direction of Sir Peter Cook devised a quick construction ‘casket’ that displayed fragments of Cook’s drawn and built work. In particular, it took advantage of the ‘sandwich’ construction of the curved corners to facilitate a form of ‘peek-a-boo’ revelation of the pictorial material.’
Quotes from Katrin Förster, the global key account manager for architects and interior architects, of ABB; ‘For us at ABB, this was an excellent opportunity to work with a prominent and respected member of the industry who has influenced and continues to influence the way the architectural design is thought like no other. Sir Peter was always open to new approaches and techniques, which we also want to express in our supportive attitude. We stand for technological renewal as well as ecological and economic improvement of buildings.’ Said Katrin, more of her visions and ABB’s support for the global architectural scene can be viewed in the ‘Frozen Music: ABB in Architecture’ series: https://new.abb.com/buildings/frozen-music. A lot of the drawings being shown in the pavilion are part of a new Circa Press book ‘Speculations’ – consisting of Peter Cook’s drawings over a 50+ year period. Both projects have been supported by ABB – the leading digital technology company for electrification and automation.
