The Termite Pavilion at London’s Pestival

The Termite Pavilion is an art and science collaboration between Softroom Architects, Freeform Engineering, Atelier One, Chris Watson, Haberdasherylondon, KLH and Pestival.  The Pavilion arrived at the International Arts Pestival in London 2009, the Pestival is a mobile arts festival examining insect-human interactivity in bio-science, through paradigms of contemporary art, cinema, music and comedy as well as direct scientific demonstration and educational projects. More details about the project come after the jump.

Based on the work of Dr. Rupert Soar and the TERMES project,  the pavilion is a 3D central section of a termite mound that is scaled up to accommodate humans. The structure will arrive in kit form, to be put together on site. It is made of cross laminated timber, sourced from Austrian spruce, for reasons of sustainability, durability and cost.

Project TERMES (Termite Emulation of Regulatory Mound Environments by Simulation) believes that we can learn a lot from how these insects construct their homes.  It may sound unbelievable but the team proposes that the insects’ ways of constructing their mounds will “have some serious implications on construction in the near future.”  The mounds are renowned for their ability to regulate and control the internal environments, and the insects utilize only renewable energy sources to supply enough energy for their race to thrive.

Could we really be taking tips from termites in the future? “No-one has ever seen this structure and we are revealing it to the world for the first time. What we learn from these mounds will enable us to change the very fabric of construction as we know it, so we build our own buildings on any terrain, against any backdrop,” explained TERMES. “With new computer technologies and processes, we have, for the first time, the opportunity to reveal, simulate and then embed this knowledge into our own homes, which are the greatest consumers of energy and generators of waste, ” the team added.