THE PAVILION
A Polemical Typology
The pavilion in both, historical and contemporary terms poses a series of questions that begin unravel the role of the pavilion as essentially a formative and polemical architectural typology. Whether temporary or permanent, designed for a single function – and always for pleasure, the pavilion has been and is used in the promotional service of states and corporations, to house a unique and small selection of art objects, or simply for pleasurable accommodation.
As an architectural object, the pavilion has offered illustrious architects, from Schinkel, via Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frei Otto, to Toyo Ito and Zaha Hadid the opportunity to present new and unique architectural ideas. It is the quintessential, pure embodiment of architecture.
As a gazebo, the pavilion is used to orientate the visitors to the surroundings; as an art pavilion, the structure serves as a space that is orientated to its own interior to enable the reverence of a selection of art works. In other instances, the pavilion is an interim passage that negotiates between other spaces and offers a moment of respite and enjoyment.
But what happens when the distinction between inside and outside are momentary blurred; the discrete identities of container and contained are obfuscated; or time and place as dimensions we need to orientate ourselves, are seemingly expanded or collapsed beyond the ostensibly rational due to technological incursion? Where does this leave the pavilion as we have come to know it, and how does it render the relation between architecture and art?
Current work
Summer Semester 2009
Architecture, the Pavilion and the Museum
- Map of Inhotim
For the academic year 2008-2009, the Architecture Class is teaming up with Instituto Cultural Inhotim, a large museum in Brazil, to conduct in-depth studies on a development of its vast and complex cultural program. The program addresses the role of the museum, art and architecture in generating a sustainable. socio-cultural and economic development of the museum as well as the impact this may have on a local, regional and national level. The plans for the project have been developed in collaboration with the director of Inhotim, Jochen Volz.
A Brief Note on the Architectural Context of the Project
In engaging with Inhotim for the span of the coming academic year, SAC takes on one of the more progressive areas in contemporary architectural development. The museum typology has been and is under radical revision, not for architectural reasons alone, but since more and more socio-economic and cultural interests has been attached to the role of the museum in late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Guggenheim, Louvre, Mercedes Benz, ...the list of iconic and important buildings is long. But Inhotim offers SAC challenges far beyond the sheer museum typology. As introduced below, the institution invites us to study the role of the museum and its stock of architectural structures in a very specific and poignant socio-economic, cultural as well as environmental setting. This will allow us the opportunity to engage with fundamental aspects of architecture and extend these as potential powerful, productive factors in a larger context.
Instituto Cultural Inhotim
Instituto Cultural Inhotim is a large museum complex which was founded in 2005, situated in Brumadinho, 60 km from the capital of Minas Gerais. It is a non-profit "Public Interest Non-Governmental Organization", as classified by the Government of the State of Minas Gerais. In addition to a collection that includes important Brazilian and international art from the 1960s and on, the museum complex numbers a sequence of pavilions in the midst of a botanical garden. The botanical garden has been partly developed along guidelines formulated by famed landscape artist, Roberto Burle Marx. The enormous variety of plants at Inhotim makes it one of the largest botanical collections in the world, with rare tropical species and a forest reserve which is part of the Atlantic Forest biome. The pavilions and botanical garden form the core of the museum complex and, together with the art collection, support the institution’s ongoing development of research, scientific innovation and education.
The Architecture Class will engage in research and project work in collaboration with Inhotim and contribute to its vast educational and environmental undertaking. The Architecture Class will investigate the relationship between the arts and architecture and seek to formulate strategies for a sustainable development of the museum in a larger socio-cultural context. In topical terms, the project will address the contemporary relation between art and architecture as a site for social and cultural expression and exploration.
The Project
The planned project will contribute to a further development of Inhotim and its cultural, educational program. The project embraces architecture and art as major factors for social and economic progress. The role of art and architecture in a larger socio-economic context is particularly potent at a moment in time when economic and social stability worldwide has become threatened by one-sided market pressures and values. In the case of Inhotim and the local setting, the cultural axis between art and architecture represents a potential counterbalance to the market forces while providing a major input in the local economy. For the Architecture Class, this represents a very potent case to be studied with substantial and general relevance far beyond the case-study itself.
Thus, the project will explore the unique content and structure of Inhotim in a local and international context in order to pose a series of hypotheses and strategies for further development of the museum program. Specific attention will be given to the botanical garden and natural setting of the institution as this provides a particular example of how natural, local resources can be used in an environmental and sustainable fashion to promote local economy and culture.