The New Pavilions

A global overview of the most innovative and arresting pavilions, one of the most popular built forms for both architecture practitioners and students

Tents, bandstands, displays, places for sitting, listening, seeing and being seen … Pavilions have myriad forms and functions. For architects and designers, they offer unique opportunities to experiment with form, construction, material, structure, surface and texture, often as prototypes for larger buildings or as purely artistic pursuits.

A pavilion’s location also offers rich possibilities for interaction with the landscapes, streetscapes and peoplescapes around it. Pavilions can be temples to digital interaction or provide oases of surreal calm and isolation.

The New Pavilions presents a selection of the best and most exciting examples produced in recent years. From the cutting-edge forms of Sou Fujimoto to Zaha Hadid’s Chanel pavilion, from small structures created entirely out of farm waste to a mirrored carapace conceived by Olafur Eliasson, each pavilion featured provides a lesson in the extreme possibilities of built form and demonstrates that many of the biggest ideas in architecture start small.

Features work by:
Atelier Bow-Wow, Bunker Arquitectura, Olafur Eliasson, Zaha Hadid, Heatherwick Studio, Herzog & de Meuron, MBMO, John Pawson, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, PLY Architecture, Sn?hetta, Sou Fujimoto, UNStudio, Vector Architects
… and many more

Philip Jodidio studied art history and economics at Harvard, and edited Connaissance des Arts for over twenty years. He is internationally renowned as one of the most popular writers on architecture. A Knight in the French Order of Arts and Letters, he has also won the Prix de Briey for his publications. His books include The Japanese House Reinvented, published by Thames & Hudson.