ContemPLAY pavilion | DRS + FARMM

ContemPLAY is a pavilion that is combining steel and wood structure in an innovative way, the pavilion is created by the McGill School of Architecture, DRS (Directed Research Studio M.Arch) students in coordination with the Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation (FARMM), investigating new methods of practice. Maria Mingallon and Jason Crow, the project instructors, shared with us these new updates about the pavilion.

photography by © Maria Mingallon

ContemPLAY pavilion

The ContemPLAY pavilion project is a student-led initiative investigating new methods of practice. The project presented a unique opportunity for the students of the Directed Research Studio (DRS) of the McGill School of Architecture to learn through hands-on experience in an academic context. DRS masters students in coordination with the Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation (FARMM) are responsible for the design, fabrication and assembly of the parametric pavilion.

A revolution in digital modeling tools has enabled a new generation of designers to model anything that they are capable of imagining. A typical problem with many of the resulting designs is that it is very difficult to move past the formal superficiality of the digital model into confronting the physical limitations and complications of construction. The production of the ContemPLAY pavilion engaged the question of learning not through the representation of potential project but in questioning through making. In this way, formal possibility and technical complexity were interrogated by fabrication. As a design-build effort, the project team confronted research into cutting-edge processes within the many challenges of bringing any design to reality.

photography by © David Dworkind

The ContemPLAY pavilion project began as an exercise in parametric design and digital fabrication, and the built form now exists as an architectural statement about resolving complexity. The pavilion is a device for provoking inquiry, thoughtfulness, and even wonder about spaces and objects in one’s environment. It manipulates viewers’ perceptions through its overall form and carefully arrayed details, inviting the user to discern the boundaries between public furniture, shelter, and art.

photography by © David Dworkind

Team

Hamza Alhbian, Simon Bastien, Justin Boulanger, Evguenia Chevtchenko, Elisa Costa, Jason Crow, Nicolas Demers-Stoddart, Andrew Hruby, Olga Karpova, Shelley Ludman, Diandra Maselli, Maria Mingallon, Courtney Posel, Dina Safonova, Dieter Toews, Sophie Wilkin.