falling down, falling down.: Archifest Pavilion 2013: "House".

Archifest is a month-long festival celebrating the urban environment and the communities that make it come alive. Organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects, Singapore’s only architecture festival features programmes to engage a wider audience in conversations about the city.

Accompanying the festival, is the festival pavilion whose design is won through competition. The pavilion is in its third year this year; in fact, it just concluded competition submissions last week, therefore results for this year's winning scheme should be out anytime soon.

"House", the winning scheme last year won by RSP Architects Engineers and Planners, was a structure built with construction scaffolding.

Archifest Pavilion: A House for Contemplating Architecture

by Lim Sio Hui 27/09/13 1:33 AM EDT

Organized by the Singapore Institute of Architects, this year’s Archifest opens today, September 27, with the unveiling of the pavilion.

Like a house under construction, the scaffolding-wrapped structure of this year’s Archifest Pavilion reveals itself upon closer inspection. Set lightly on Dhoby Ghaut Green, the purpose-built venue is accessed through a main footpath leading from the MRT station exit, where a series of small installations invite and lead visitors into the main event area, whose pitched-roof form can be seen as one moves closer. It is in this sheltered space where visitors will find many of the festival’s activities taking place, from talks, tours to exhibitions.

Titled “House,” the winning design by RSP Architects Planners & Engineers centers around a concept that contemplates the process of a building’s life, its carbon footprint and the larger landscape in which it resides, as well as building with common elements found in the industry, which gave rise to the scaffolding-based structure.

“Such structures loom large at every construction site spotted across the island, yet people often look past or through them for the final product,” explains the project’s lead designer Mark Wong. Additional reasons for choosing the scaffolding system was for its efficacy in set up and teardown, and more importantly 100% recyclability, and inherent structural logic also allows the pavilion to be elevated, hence reducing the damage made to the ground. “In essence, the Pavilion unapologetically evokes a sense of fleeting temporariness, even if expansive, with a grand hope that past its shelf-life and little to no waste is incurred on the land,” says Wong.

Apart from the main event space, the plot has been designed to flow out into the surrounding landscape and internal courtyard, allowing activities to extend to the entire site with its existing greenery and trees. Visitors are also encouraged to explore and experience the pavilion in their own way, interacting with the playfully inserted elements that range from the very small to the extremely large, from the landscape blinker lights that are attached to scaffolding pipes, to the link-way installation and the main event space itself.

“From our experience, Archifest is an excellent opportunity for architectural designers to explore new and unconventional ways of building, and to really flex one’s design thinking in a way that a lot of permanent projects cannot for an array of reasons,” says Wong.

“We do believe that House lends a very different perspective on what architecture is and can be moving away from just a finished product, to the wonders of the smaller, transient and forgotten parts, processes and the people who contribute to the finished product.”