Archive-opia WikiPavilion

a series of events and exhibitions at different locations around the city during the Autumn of 2022. The Pavilion was designed to be assembled and disassembled quickly by a small team of technicians, to ‘pop-up’ at a series of different sites, both internal and external. The Archive-opia brief required the WikiPavillion to act as a landmark to engage local audiences, provide exhibition and installation opportunities across its interior and exterior, and become both a stage and backdrop for a range of presentations and events. Bespoke furniture within the commission facilitated an audience outside the pavilion, increasing its impact. Hence the design punches above its 9m2 footprint architecturally. At all venues community engagement in the project outperformed expectations, and the theatre of assembly and disassembly generated its own audience. A prototype for the new WikiHouse Skylark 2.0 system, the Pavilion uses open-source digital files and CNC-cut spruce plywood components for economical, low-carbon manufacture. The result is an ingenious, low-tech ‘kit of parts’. As well as responding to its commercial brief, the Pavilion was a research vehicle for Open Systems Lab, who produced the digital files for the project and monitored its assembly. Digital files enable the construction components to be cut economically from standard plywood sheets, including the system’s unique ‘butterfly’ clips, which slot together without any additional mechanical fixings. Any worn or damaged components are easily replaced. Constructed entirely of sequestering material, the Pavilion’s embodied carbon footprint is negative. As an unconditioned space, the Pavilion’s operational carbon impact is negligible. The Pavilion is currently in storage with ambitions for further pop-up installations across the city in 2023, including in local schools.