As one of fourteen international firms invited to participate in the exhibition Architecture as Art exhibit at the XXI Triennale di Milano, we were asked by the curators to build human-scale installations as “the architectural equivalent of entries in a possible dictionary, such as Portico, Entrance, Rehabilitation, Roof, Shelter, Pavilion, etc.”
Six interlocking aluminum vaults spring from a triangular outdoor stage to define a new space for performance and serendipitous public use – and misuse.
The vault – historically erected over social gathering spaces, such as thermae, amphitheaters, and basilicas – is one of the most fundamental elements of architecture. While traditionally built with massive load-bearing masonry, and expressing solidity and strength, the aluminum vaults in Polycentric Pavilion are as thin as possible – 5mm – making their connection to the environment more tenuous, as they respond to external forces such as sound and wind. Sound – emanating from a performance, from the vaults moving with the wind, or elsewhere in the Bicocca grounds – is projected by the aluminum vaults in unfamiliar ways, heard by a mobile public.
