Dragon Skin Pavilion
Dragon Skin. Dragons have something more akin to scales don’t they? Do scales still qualify as skin? Hmm, well. Anyways. This is the Dragon Skin Pavilion created initially by the Emmi Keskisarja, Pekka Tynkkynen, Kristof Crolla (LEAD) and Sebastien Delagrange (LEAD) from the Tampere University of Technology in the autumn of 2011 (total build time: 8 days) and a second time by an international team of material and structural engineers for the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture.
Courtesy of Tampere University of Technology
The pavilion is composed of 163 mould-bent plywood ‘scales’ which through CNC-milling, according to a computer master-model, are all fitted together to form this arching structure.
Courtesy of Tampere University of Technology
I do have to say that although this is very nice to look at, and a bit intellectually stimulating- it feels cold to me. I see cool precision and a lack of human touch. I am a bit tired of hearing that things are contrived through ‘an algorithmic process’. It is almost as if the whole of the design world has developed this insecurity in it’s own talents and knack for design, and must rely upon computers to mathematically justify their work. Goddamn it! When will someone be bold enough to claim to be both an architect and someone who did it by ‘eyeing it’. And yes, these algorithmic tools allow us to do ever complex and intricate stuff. But, yeah. So what?
Anyways, great pavilion.
Courtesy of Tampere University of Technology
Credits :
Dragon Skin is a collaboration between architects Emmi Keskisarja, Pekka Tynkkynen, Kristof Crolla (LEAD) and Sebastien Delagrange (LEAD).
