Architect Francis Kéré has completed work on Xylem, a new pavilion at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana that is fashioned from a collection of tree trunks.
The 2,100-square-foot pavilion, described as "a quiet place to contemplate nature" by the organizers, draws inspiration from the wooden and straw toguna structures in West Africa's Dogon communities. In their native context, togunas are seen as sacred structures and are often located at the center of each village where they host communal discussions and debates. Designed with squat proportions that force visitors to sit down when inhabiting the space, the traditional structures play a vital role in the governance and everyday life of their respective villages.
For the pavilion in Montana, Kéré has created a lively and textured space built entirely from the logs of ponderosa and lodgepole pine trees. The logs create undulating topographies that are rendered smooth in certain areas to create seating areas. The logs also drop down from the ceiling in alternating lengths and densities in order to shape the occupation of the space while also allowing dappled light to filter into the pavilion.
The thick, naturalistic log roof is supported by four piers while the individual log pieces sit within a large steel honeycomb structure.
In a statement announcing the completion of the pavilion, Kéré said, “Standing on the high meadow of Tippet Rise Art Center, looking out at the mountains under a vast sky, people can face nature at its widest scale. But with this pavilion, Tippet Rise offers a more intimate experience of its landscape within a quiet shelter, where people can access the most secret part of nature: the heart of the trees."
4 Comments
Its a cool structure. Kinda takes me back to growing up on a farm not too far from Tippet Rise. I remember stacking logs with my dad, they looked a lot like those bundles. Stacking them was fun, coming back in a month to chop firewood was the worst. Those fuckers would get filled with wasps. So many goddamn wasps. They just love building nests in stacked logs, especially in sheltered little draws down by the creek. They'd get in there, too, to places a can of Raid can't reach.
Its a good thing the architect didn't put bundled logs next to a creek in Montana for an outdoor pavilion, that'd be a goddamn disaster....oh wait.
#fuckingwaste
Enough with the pavilions, do people even use them? Especially when they’re in the middle of nowhere.
very heavy. Looks like something I’ve seen many times over with 2x4s or 4x4s...just with logs instead...I really like this guys work, but this one seems over the top.
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