Cluny Summer Pavilion

‘We ♥ the Suburbs’, a charity set up by architecture graduates Melanie Bax and Sarah Considine was driven by a desire for recognition that the suburbs represent some of Britain’s most worrying overlooked deprivation.

Through focusing on Cluny, a housing estate in Southend-on-Sea, Bax and Considine used interactive exhibitions and workshops to put local people at the heart of the project. From this, the project was established - a temporary, demountable summer pavilion that could be self-built, accommodate a series of events and be reused for summers to come – all in collaboration with young people.

The simplicity of its forms allowed for flexibility – acting as shelter, stage, informal café, park bench, climbing frame. Its birch plywood repeating panels, from some angles allowed seclusion, from others was permeable and importantly surveyable. The external form was modest, responding to its no-frills park location, while internally playful.