ZEPHYR | FrenchKissGroup

        The World Exposition is temporary and lasts only 6 months. However, the Slow Food’ pavilion imagined by Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron, was one of the few to be designed to have a second life. Seeking resource saving, which is our main guide, we thought about Zéphyr with a wood structure, totally removable, modular and appropriate as emergency shelter.

The short-lived character of the event and an environmental purpose forces us to have minimal impact on its site, theforest of Saclay. It’s an artificial forest planted for the shipbuilding with a singular and regular weft. On the one hand, our pavilion rises to minimize its footprint, to preserve the nature of the soil. On the other hand, it is conceived by a weft allowing it to let the trees at their own place without cutting them. So, Zéphyr sits with lightness on three points to ensure its stability. By respect to the structural logic, the shape of its different parts, providing a natural descent of the loads like the ship model, by a central keel which concentrated a lot of matter. The open design enables a symbiosis with the Nature thanks to the trees passing through it and letting some parts of the sky appear. Before being architects, we are first of all citizens, that’s why the location of the building is very important for us.

The skin is made of nylon and recycled cotton. The constitution of the weaving varies from transparent to translucent. It is due to the concentration of the components and it acts as a light diffuser inside the pavilion. This coating provides several atmosphere to Zéphyr. It aspect changes with the time. For example, it is opaque with a diffused light, disclosing its ribs in back-light and trying to disappear thanks to the mimicry with the trunk of the forest.

As we said before, the shape of the building respect a structural logic which ensures a natural descent of the loads to the supports. The global meshing are bracing the building and manage the loads to the three supports by triangulation. Thanks to that, the pavilion has a perfect equilibrium. The plane is organized around a central cross, inside of what there are the exhibition’ spaces. The four peripherals parts are used to circulate and offer and innovative look on the trees. The elements at the extremities of the structure give equilibrium and rigidity to the whole building. They also invite visitors to discover the secrets of the Zéphyr’ shape under the floor, as soon as they begin the queue to visit the pavilion.

In respect to the French pavilion of the 2015’ World Exposition, which was a big structure below which we circulated, we suggest a skeleton to punctuate our ascension to this scenography. She will reveal its beauty by inside and not only from below, giving the illusion of an inhabited structure.