LIVING PAVILION Annecy

Site: Place Notre Dame, Annecy, France
Client: Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy
Program: Seasonal installation for the Annecy Paysages Festival
Completion: July 2019

Featured In: Urban Interventions: Design Ideas for the Public Space by Wang Shaoqiang, designboom, design milk
Award: 2019 Interior Design Best of Year Finalist

Behin Ha Design Studio, public art installation, Annecy, France, Living Pavilion, milk crates

Behin Ha was invited by Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy to reinterpret their 2010 installation Living Pavilion on Governors Island in New York for the 2019 Annecy Paysages festival. Like the original, the installation in Annecy employs plastic dairy crates to support plants overhead. The Liriope plants are first cultivated in the crates in the upright position. The planted crates are then installed upside-down at the Pavilion, and removed at the end of the summer season to be cultivated in a suitable environment (and right-side-up) in anticipation of the next season. Thus the modular design of the plantings allows regeneration of the pavilion from year-to-year, and at different locations.

While the exterior shape of the pavilion recalls the hipped and gabled roof forms of the historic buildings of Annecy, the planted interior creates a suspended garden within the hardscape of the old city center. The geometric form of the pavilion - three sides of a cube tilted to contact the ground at three foundation points and warped slightly to elevate the structure - belies the organic nature of the experience within. The upside-down lawn at the interior engages visitors and invites them to reconsider notions of nature within the context of the man-made. Additionally, the garden of hanging shade-tolerant plants provides an environment maintained at a cooler temperature through a combination of shading and evapotranspiration.

PROJECT TEAM:
Designers: Behrang Behin and Ann Ha
Structural Engineer: Fast + Epp
Construction: Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy, Vision Bois Construction, COBS/GIPEN

Living Pavilion Annecy

LIVING PAVILION Annecy