By Design – Guilherme Leick

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Connection to Harringay Warehouse District

I believe that one powerful quality of the warehouses is their ability to adapt to different functions; this gives them atemporal features. A great part of this flexibility is linked to characteristics such as the open floor plan, simple forms, big spans, and heights. Therefore, the Tottenham Pavilion’s design reflects the typology of these building types, and by allowing the free customization of the spaces within the site boundaries; it contributes to the district’s artistic, creative atmosphere.

Proposal Outline

“A raw file is a collection of unprocessed data. This means the file has not been altered, compressed, or manipulated… “

The Pavilion as a medium of possibilities operates like canvas, a blank page or a raw file, open to be interpreted and signified in varied ways. The open plan reflects this concept, a provocative tool used to stimulate the creator’s mind to get started.

The possibility of fully opening the building blurs the divisions of the interior and the exterior. In the summer, it allows a pleasant breeze to cross-ventilate, while in the winter, when closed, the building operates as a glasshouse, trapping the warmth inside.

The movable partitions can be used to extend the options of spatial arrangement. Materiality is expressed in a raw way, nothing is hidden, everything is apparent, just like in warehouses. The structure of the Pavilion becomes the frame to the theater plot (the daily life), which is more important than the scene (the building design) itself.

The chosen materials allow easy handling and reparation; the timber structure is an example of that. The opaque polycarbonate allows the light to pour in, indirectly, flooding the space and creating a well-lit and vivid environment. Combining the half-transparent walls with the wooden shading panels, light can be shaped in different ways. The Pavilion is planned to be easily mountable and dismountable, and the modular system allows the structure to expand according to new demands.

The Pavilion can adapt to different scenarios: local market, fairs, workshops, expositions, concerts, community gatherings, and even forums to discuss anti-gentrification topics.