By Alvaro Novas Filgueira
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Connection to Harringay Warehouse District
Can we balance the forces of the housing market in an area like Harringay Warehouse District, and can we establish a dialogue between all parties involved?. “Does this make sense?” is a saying commonly used when we are discussing ideas or thoughts and we are open for debate. This is the concept chosen for the pavilion whose main purpose is to offer the perfect scenario for community, artists, professionals, local authorities, and anyone involved in the Harringay Warehouse District to debate, talk, exchange ideas, and find solutions.
Proposal Outline
IN THEORY
In the past decades, many unpopular urban areas worldwide have been taken over by people with enormous creativity and a strong sense of community who, working together for many years, have managed to establish great conditions for urban living. On the other hand, these areas are becoming the perfect base for the free market to develop insensitive urban plans, where all signs of the personality that characterized these places are erased, and substituted by unaffordable housing and sterile public spaces.
At first sight, the structure gives the experience of what gentrification is, a gigantic inhuman gate flanked by a vertical forest made up of unreachable stepping levels where trees in pots represent an artificial nature, inaccessible to the majority of the citizens (icing on the cake). But an enormous gate invites us to enter and gives us hope when we see ourselves in the middle of a stage provoking us to be participants in the different performances, lectures, videos, music, or art installations that the Harringay Warehouse community will organize.
IN PRACTICE
A wooden structure is the soul of the pavilion, clad in re-used wooden planks, giving shape to a strong but simple entity, which makes it easy to built. It is inspired in the silhouettes of the district’s urban factories and it is intended to work as a beacon and a billboard of the Harringay Warehouse District.
The general dimensions are 13 by 12 by 9 meters. The main elements of this structure are: The gate (1), The workshops (2), Vertical forest (3), The Billboard (4), La Tribune (5), and Small movable Dialogues (6).
This modern Trojan Horse divides the plot into two main areas or atmospheres: The Welcome Plaza (A), where art installations can be exhibited, invites the guests to pass through the giant gate to the other side. Walking along the entrance hallway, which can itself be a good space for exhibition, we can find two interior spaces of 25 sqm at both sides, which can be used for workshops, exhibitions, or performances. Once we have passed the alley, we are in The Grand Stage (B), which is the main space where lectures, conferences, performances, music, and all kinds of activities can be carried out.
The Vertical forest with trees represents the vitality of the Harringay Community and the trees are meant to be donated by the different participants of the district or sponsors by other entities, and once the pavilion is dismantled they can be relocated in different district public spaces.
To encourage the exchange of ideas in the community, the leftover piece from the grandstands, “Small movable Dialogues”, can be transported to other sites in the district or the city, generating new locations where performances can be held and the spirit of the Harringay Warehouse District can be promoted.