BA.SALT PAVILION / "Hermeneutics of light" | ARCHQUID ​architecture think-act tank

In this particular pavilion, we propose certain dialectics that articulate the project, such as the one established between personal expression versus functionality or between known materials versus new materials.

In the projects we do, we are aware of the zeitgeist that makes them possible. We believe that by knowing this condition we can see more clearly which parts or elements of the project have greater doses of sensitivity to time.

In the pavilions, in general, we can see a certain audacity arising from the lack of permanence, the will to explore and experience that arises from the apparent lesser responsibility that is expected from a temporary construction, an event with a definite time. However, we must ask ourselves if this has to be thought of as really a lesser responsibility.

The ephemeral fact is not synonymous with minimal fact. The small scale does not necessarily imply less responsibility or a different level of involvement than a larger scale project. Because here there can be confusions in relation to a program: that one with more elements and more complex in relation to its functions can have a greater effect than one that can be produced by using a new material in a small design.

We think of this project as a social and meeting space, a place of exhibition, as well as a space to think and rest.

We believe that it has to be versatile enough, so it is designed as a flexible structure. This experimental project began as a research in the university (NCKU) and had as participants some postgraduate students.

With this pavilion we try to reveal a local expression, a form based on notions and materials of vernacular origin combined with current techniques. With this, we intend to link various concepts with the use of elements obtained from the soil, such as salt and basalt. The use of basalt appears as a gesture that refers to tectonics, a connection with the earth and an idea of ​​permanence. It is a material little used in construction, except for its use in structures. But in relation to its expressive qualities it is clearly unexplored.

The cubes, here as minimal units of composition, besides being able to be combined in different positions, can incorporate in a different way salt and basalt panels. This creates changing atmospheres, giving the project a certain vivid character.

We are interested in seeing the different light capacities that can arise from the different configurations of the cubes, but also from the reflective and projective capacities -in relation to light- of the salt and basalt panels. We believe that all these factors collaborate in generating enhanced effects of lights and shadows, making this a fundamental theme of this pavilion.

It is a project that establishes a dialectic also in this sense. Between its diurnal atmosphere and its nocturnal luminous capacity. In the time it has been built, it was possible to see how people act and use it in very different ways depending on whether it is day or night. We could say that during the day the project invites to enter and to be a place of rest and shade. During the night it acts as a light emitter and it could be seen how it produces an effect of sensory excitement that invites to approach, although in general this approach is more external than in the daytime hours.

The light here appears as a main element of design, enhanced by a particular morphology and by two precise materials.

It is not an object that goes unnoticed and, in the different luminous instances, the pavilion promotes the participation and interaction of the people that circulate there.

In these project exercises, of small scale, we see the birth of several lines of interest. Here, with all these factors affecting atmospheres and light gradients, we can not stop thinking about a kind of "hermeneutics of light".