Between Forests and Skies.
29th November 2021
The beautifully named pavilion ‘Between Forests and Skies’ designed by multidisciplinary design practice Nebbia Works has come to a close following the completion of the September 2021 London Design Festival. But that isn’t the end of the lifecycle of this charming pavilion.
The immersive structure, designed and built using low carbon aluminium, illustrates perfectly the strength and durability of the material, as well as its sustainability. It was set within the museum’s John Madejski Garden, a seemingly continuous piece of material that glimmered in the sun, and reflected the water it sat within.
The structure actually consists of 27 metal sheets of identical dimensions, each propped up by a single leg chased from its surface using a water jet cutter. The legs were then prised perpendicular by attaching them to a gantry crane, and rolling them around a huge tube.
We were lucky enough to briefly meet Madhav, Co-Founder of Nebbia Works, who was photographing the Pavilion with such enjoyment and energy when we visited. He told us a little more about the use of aluminium and how the structure was self-supporting, and did not rely on the addition of any other materials for it’s stability. There was also no lacquer or finish applied to the material, and instead the surface was hand-buffed and it’s edges manually polished.
All this, he said, was to maintain a purity of the aluminium, to ensure that the structure could be reused after the exhibition had ended. The pure aluminium will be melted down and re-used for new products to really show the infinite possibilities and lifecycle of the material.
