Modifiable Pavillion in Bonn

“Let’s build three huts!” Thus proclaimed the Elisabeth Montag Foundation, which has set itself the goal of supporting the dialogue between architecture and the fine arts. One of these “huts” – erected subsequently on the grounds of a former city nursery in Bonn – was conceived in the form of a simple, metamorphosing pavilion. Under the title “space for a time, time in space”, the temporary structure provides visitors with a refuge in which to experience an invigorating interplay between interior and exterior, volume and object. The pavilion was placed at the intersection of tree plantings which had been left to go wild, deteriorating glasshouses, and open space. In its compactness it constitutes a contrast to both. When the operable outer walls are in the closed position, the space could be considered representative of the “primitive hut”, offering shelter, protection, and privacy. The structure, reduced to a basic geometrical form, reaches out on all sides – assisted by cable-braced steel supports – into the landscape. The supports function as tracks in which the walls can be raised, allowing the interior space to gradually vanish. Ultimately the closed structure transmutes into a sheltering roof which offers protection from the rain and the sun, but otherwise melds with the landscape surrounding it. With their design, Kalhöfer Korschildgen address flexibility – a recurrent theme at present – in a lucid, coherent manner with a straightforward form, and make use of modern, mass-produced materials. The structural members consist of L-shaped steel columns and base plates which support a flexurally rigid tent-roof structure of steel -rectangular-hollow-section supports. The four exterior walls were executed as simple one-piece lift garage doors. A white, water-resistant polyethylene membrane serves as the outer skin; the interior fabric is a red net, the type typically used to safeguard scaffolding on building sites. Both membranes are -attached to the steel sections with high-performance adhesive tape.