This past April we got excited for this year’s FIGMENT Festival after taking a sneak peek at the design drawings and plans for the event’s Living Pavilion. Now that the annual festival has come and gone, Figment’s City of Dreams Pavilion Completion-winning creation stands erected on Governors Island, where it will reside all summer long! The designers, Ann Ha and Behrang Behin kindly provided us with some awesome images of the 10-foot tall structure that is made of recycled-incentive milk crates planted with both sun and shade-friendly growing surfaces.
Living Pavilion is a beautiful summer-time shelter that offers the perfect shady place to relax. The structure’s ‘wave’ form distributes a selection of milk crates purchased from Admar Plastics, a company that manufactures and uses up to 15 – 20% re-processed resin from old crates that were bought back from previous customers.
On the underside of the structure, the milk crates are used as planters for a specific shade tolerent species of plant called liriope. The top side of the structure is planted with grass seeds that helps keep the roots of the liriope shaded and cool. Some milk crates are left unplanted on the south side of the structure to serve as ‘light pockets’ that allow small amounts of light to trickle into the shaded zone underneath the pavilion.
The large planted surface area stimulates evapotranspiration, which helps keep visitors nice and cool. The designers considered the full life-cycle of the project by making sure every step impacts the environment as little as possible. If everything continues to go as planned, the plantings will be distributed to the community at the end of the season.
Be sure to take a break and cool down under Living Pavilion located on the Parade Grounds, near Fort Jay and Nolan Park on Governors Island from now until October 3rd, 2010.
[...] solar panels as well as a small-scale wind turbine, which produce enough power for the small home. Modular plant boxes are mounted on the exterior and are planted with vegetation, which provides extra insulation. [...]