Lavastyle GmbH

Inside the Flower Pavilion

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Leslie Ranzoni

INSIDE THE FLOWER PAVILION

Lava

ARCHITECTS
Lava

AREA
16 m²

LOCATION
Berlin, Germany

YEAR
2017

PHOTOGRAPHS
Leslie Ranzoni, Michael Geßner

PRODUCTION
Archimedes GmbH

CATEGORY
Small Scale

ARTIST
Janet Laurence

CLIENT
IGA / Katja Assmann

MANUFACTURERS
Archimedes Exhibitions, Prinzenpott, Tege Planen & Zelte

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Bollinger & Grohmann

BOTANICAL RESEARCH AND PLANTING
Cityplot

ARCHITECTS IN CHARGE
Tobias Wallisser, Chris Bosse, Alexander Rieck, Christian Tschersich, Anastasyia Vitusevych, Jenny Lee

Text description provided by architect.

A membrane pavilion showcases a new installation, ‘Inside the Flower’, an experiential medicinal garden by Australian artist Janet Laurence at the International Garden Exposition (IGA) Berlin.

LAVA collaborated with Janet Laurence to materialise her laboratory-like space of discovery, an exhibition of medicinal plants, showcasing the diversity and ambivalence of botany.

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner

Tobias Wallisser, LAVA director, said: “LAVA was thrilled to work with Janet Laurence to realise her ‘wanderkammer’, commissioned by Katja Assmann at the IGA.

Taking Laurence’s concept design we created the sculptural pavilion based on the geometric structure of a medicinal plant, a fabricated cellular environment inspired by plant anatomy.”

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Leslie Ranzoni

“Laurence’s mixed-media installations explore nature-related themes, and our concepts are similar – the shapes and structures from the natural world are the inspiration for LAVA’s designs.

The connection between nature and technology underpins our approach.”

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Leslie Ranzoni

Janet Laurence said: “It was a wonderful experience to work with like-minded creatives, LAVA and urban farming collective Cityplot. Understanding the ‘being of a plant’ - its biochemical intelligence, its place in nature and the relationships it forms - is a view we share, especially in this time of ecological fragility”.

A transparent mesh membrane made of natural cotton is wrapped around the outside of the pavilion structure.

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Leslie Ranzoni
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Leslie Ranzoni

The cupola (4.5m wide and 3.5m high) is entirely made of 8mm thin elements of stainless steel.

Twelve ribs support a central ring, which holds up two industrial perspex skylights forming a lens.

Twelve ribs support a central ring, which holds up two industrial perspex skylights forming a lens.

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner

A stem of tubes and vials, emulating the movement of fluids and biological processes, represents the xylem and phloem of plants.

Five rings of irregularly cut curvy shelves house cellular clusters to display the plants. Surrounding the exterior of the pavilion is a delicate laboratory-type garden of medicinal plants, planted in custom-made transparent containers.

Visitors explore the plant world from the inside – its healing power and poison, its beauty and curiosity, its biological diversity and ecological instability. They can eat and drink the edible flowers and plant extracts.

The installation is both a botanical display, with references to Germany’s botanical history, and a performative space.

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner
Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner

The floor is made of metal mesh, creating an industrial and minimalist feel, whilst the pavilion is placed on an organic wooden platform. Weighing two tons the pavilion was assembled in two days by exhibition designers Archimedes.

The pavilion design grew from LAVA’s experiments in form finding and membranes in such projects as Green Void and UTS Reskin.

Chris Bosse, LAVA director Asia Pacific, who worked with Laurence on the concept, added: “We love the energy of cross-disciplinary collaboration between art and architecture, and over continents - it started in Sydney and went on to Berlin”.

Inside the Flower Pavilion
© Michael Geßner


Inside the Flower Pavilion
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Inside the Flower Pavilion
Plan / Sections
Inside the Flower Pavilion
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Inside the Flower Pavilion
Diagram

Lavastyle GmbH
T +49 173 8222389
Lavastyle GmbH
Linumweg 1, 26441 Jever, Germany