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#PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS

Shift A+U reinterprets bernard tschumi's groningen gallery as CMY pavilion

In 1990, the city of groningen held a city-wide exhibition called ‘what a wonderful world’.

Scattered throughout the metropolis, five pavilions brought pop music to the mainstream public realm. created for long term installation, the pavilions were made by the architectural avant-garde of the time, including: peter eisenman, zaha hadid, coophimmelb(l)au, rem koolhaas, and bernard tschumi.

of the five, only the latter two remain. OMA’s programmatic creation’s success is due to its pairing with a bus stop, making it equally as usable today as it was 25 years ago. tschumi’s work persisted for its complete lack of any program. essentially a transparent, glass envelope, the pavilion has stayed relevant through continuous public events, art projects, and exhibitions.

originally, tschumi chose glass for its ability to create unstable façades. as videos were played on the transparent surfaces, they transformed the space into an illusive spectacle in which images were constantly being altered by reflections, positions, and the moving city beyond its walls. in keeping with the concept, shift architecture urbanism reinterpreted the space into the ‘CMY pavilion’.

using translucent colored film — cyan, magenta, yellow — the pavilion becomes a three dimensional graphic that changes as visitors move through and around. because of the films’ opacities, bands of primaries meld together to create secondary ‘virtual’ colors. cyan and magenta form blue, yellow and cyan – green, and magenta and cyan – red.

people circulating the surrounding roundabout experience shifting colors and patterns. standing directly facing the façade, spectators are able to perceive six colors (CMYRGB). internally, colors instead mix with the city, and the palette remains in its three-color layout. the films are wrapped diagonally around the structure to enhance the destabilized, gyrated effect that tschumi created through tilting the building.

video courtesy of shift architecture urbanism

Details

  • Hereplein 2, 9711 GA Groningen, Netherlands
  • Shift A+U