Via Arch Daily: Nine students studying at the Aarhus School of Architecture, one of Denmark’s premiere architecture universities have transformed the typical college quad into an activated social hub with their temporary pavilion. In a quick ten-day workshop, the students designed and built the pavilion with 420 recycled euro-pallets. “By being built with nothing else but pallets, easily reachable on the site by the closeness of the harbor, the pavilion was basically a short-living vernacular architecture,” shared the students.
Since there are no structural elements, the layout and overlapping of the euro-pallets were extremely crucial to insure that the pavilion could be used as the students envisioned. Some pallets are stacked perpendicularly to create a cantilevered condition which provides steps to bring students to the very top of the pavilion, or serve as little seats where users’ feet dangle in the air.
The designers determined the curvilinear form of the pavilion after studying the regular flow of students through the courtyard. The project’s snaked edges gracefully descend from its height of 3.5m to the ground level – suggesting, if not tempting, all who pass by to climb. “The pavilion was basically a strip interacting with its context…leading people to use a different way of crossing the courtyard, by walking and sitting up to 3.50m high. Then, by curving the strip to link and adapt to each element, many steps were naturally created between the pallets, allowing people to sit in the sun, like on a terrace,” explained Marcilly.