Green Agora Pavilion

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong

GREEN AGORA PAVILION

Spatial Anatomy

ARCHITECTS
Spatial Anatomy

PHOTOGRAPHS
Fabian Ong

LOCATION
Singapore

MANUFACTURERS
Tubelar® Modular System

AREA
92 m²

YEAR
2020

CATAGORY
Installations & Structures, Pavilion, Community

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION SUPPORT
Chew Yun Qing, Jeff Neo

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Calvin Chua, Aurelia Chan

Text description provided by architect.

Conceived as a pavilion for community dialogue on nature, food and farming, the Green Agora allows native plants to grow on its modular aluminum structure and steel meshes.

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong

Located at Ground-Up Initiative’s Kampong Kampus since the 2020 Singapore Archifest, the pavilion activates everyday spaces in the community to meet food production needs at the neighborhood scale.

The Green Agora is both a statement and a prototype. 

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong

The project situates itself along the convergent trajectories of crisis and lifestyle: Post-COVID realities engender spiking fears of food security and an eagerness to organically manage wellness, while the currents of sustainable living continue to rise.

Green Agora is a prototype of living post-pandemic in decentralized, self-sufficient neighborhoods. To support local and participative food production in 15-minute cities, the Green Agora is designed to be flexible, lightweight and rapidly deployed to multiple neighborhoods.

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong

With its modular form and small footprint, Green Agora functions as an urban agricultural infrastructure that doubles up as a civic node.

The pavilion comprises a framework of patented aluminum modules appearing as a wireframe box perched atop another, and lightly clad with steel mesh. Plant creepers gradually engulf parts of the pavilion, embedding the structure sensitively within the natural environment.

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong

The structure elegantly balances the conflicts of an object in nature. The rigidity of a modular construction is plainly expressed in the simplicity of its outlines.

The unresponsiveness of its initial geometries makes the composition oddly incongruous with the casual disorder of the surrounding site, yet its thin frames respectfully introduce only a minimal silhouette.

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong

Given the structure’s modularity, the kit of parts allows Green Agora to be easily adapted and deployed to other sites.

n addition, the modular aluminum material can also be recycled for other projects. Utilizing the patented Tubelar modular system developed by The Shelter Company that allows for fast and efficient deployment, the entire structure was rapidly completed within two days, including a day of site preparation.

IThe pavilion is envisioned as a catalyst to steer the agenda of sustainability towards developing a new architectural typology: An ecologically sensitive outlook on live-work-play, under the changing conditions of dwelling, working, mobility, consumption and social structures.

Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong
Green Agora Pavilion
© Fabian Ong


Green Agora Pavilion
Plan
Green Agora Pavilion
Elevation


Green Agora Pavilion
Diagram