Collective imagery

By Alexander Kerskiy & Maria Markus

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Connection to Harringay Warehouse District

Pavilion as honest as life of the Harringay Warehouse District:
-Simplicity. It is self-built and made of pallets – an integral part of the district’s spirit
-No false fanciness of ‘creative’ (commercial) neighborhoods
-Pavilion as a fruit of involvement of the residents. Bring your pot flower, piece of furniture or whatever else you see fit. Make the pavilion local and showcase that special spirit of Warehouse district.
-Fun and discretion. Pavilion dissolves in the context as a part of the landscape covered in plants. It is a targeted intervention that triggers local informal activities and entertainment with no profit for gentrification.

Proposal Outline

Our design proposal starts with the idea of utilizing pallets as a universal construction material/component for the whole pavilion. We chose them for their connection to the Warehouse District (even the construction site itself used to have a bunch of them inside) and because it’s affordable, renewable and very flexible in terms of potential uses and shapes they can create when aggregated.
Geometry of the pavilion emerges from the shape of the site and envisioned functional program for the venue. It starts at the ground level as a trapezoid of the plot – podium which growing up gradually gets rectangular and then square cross-section on the top. Displacement of the pallets is designed the way that the most gentle slope of the volume faces east (crossroads of Eade and Seven Sisters rd.) – giving maximum visibility to the side where the entrance to the plot and to the pavilion will be.
Such a volumetric arrangement provides at the same time both interior and exterior public space: some sort of an urban living room on its slopes – a place for interaction, a fluid and continuous space that could become an amphitheater, an outdoor scene, a reading room, solarium etc.
Pavilion grows from the site and dissolves in the context. We would like to achieve it not just volumetrically but also socially – residents could bring pot flowers to place inside the pallets, some piece of furniture or whatever else they see fit. We believe it might create a necessary grade of connection, involvement among the local creatives and pavilion, illustrate better the spirit of Warehouse district’s life.
We talk about integration into the context, about some sort of ‘discretion’ because we understand residents’ preoccupations about gentrification and it is our attempt to give it an answer.
In our imagination idea of ‘discretion’ is somehow rooted in early Christian history with its concealed settlements. That’s why our concept, its geometry is the way it is – an artificial hill, a part of the landscape covered in plants. For us it’s a targeted intervention that creates spaces, activities and scenarios understandable for local community due to its flexibility, simplicity, freedom and informality. While the very same stacked pallets would barely make an interest for an average white collar with real estate developers.
In terms of interior pavilion is conceived as polyvalent open space with an opening on the top for a natural lighting. Its height (6 m) and dimensions reduced respect to the footprint would prevent the most of the rainwater to reach the floor. The very same structural module – pallet can provide an unprecedented flexibility to the interior space – one can quickly rearrange them creating market stalls, catwalk, scene, auditorium, workshop classes, multiple smaller rooms etc. In case when stronger ‘interior’ feeling is desired the interior side of the slopes can be covered in golden Mylar film which is water and windproof and reflects up to 97% of radiated heat. It is economically affordable and might give an ulterior aesthetic value to the pavilion.