Pavilion of Reflections

Studio Tom Emerson creates a floating pavilion for Manifesta 11.

A team of thirty architecture students from Studio Tom Emerson at ETH Zurich have designed and built a pavilion for Manifesta 11, the nomadic, European biennial of contemporary art. Floating in the lake against the backdrop of the city centre, the Pavillon of Reflections serves as the biennial’s public forum: as a meeting point, as a cinema for screening films produced as part of the biennial, reflected in the public swimming bath, open to the public during the day.

A timber island, arrange like a fragment of intimate urban space enclosed by five buildings: a tower, a tribune, a bar, a sun deck with changing cubicles below, a central pool with cinema screen above, and three generous sets of steps that lead into the lake. Together with the tower, the volumetric roofs over the bar are built up from a distinct profile of timber lattice roofs.

Under the guidance of Tom Emerson and project leaders Boris Gusic and Adrian Heusser the 32 architecture students at ETH Zurich collectively concieved and built the pavilion. The project began with an ideas competition between smaller groups of students, from which the most promising ideas were identified and developed. Organising themselves into smaller teams, they worked at different scales, from considering its position on the lake, right down to 1:1 scale prototypes. As well as the design process, the democratic construction techniques employed informed the design: the pavilion is made almost entirely of timber (European spruce), and all joints were designed to be simply screwed together. The students worked over ten months to bring the many design-related, technical and organisational dimensions of the project together to in a multi-layered and ultimately buildable work of architecture. As the project grew, experts and volunteers helped the 32 original students to realise this exceptional public space floating in lake Zurich.

Prof. Tom Emerson, Boris Gusic, Adrian Heusser, Celine Bessire, Daniel Ganz, Iela Herrling, Christoph Junk, Guillaume Othenin-Girard, Philip Shelley, Lucy Styles, Thomasine Wolfensberger, Nemanja Zimonjic

Student Team: Christina Albert, Lorenzo Autieri, Vera Bannwart, Alexander Bradley, Arthur de Buren, Jonathan Egli, Josephine Eigner, Kathrin Füglister, Michelle Geilinger, Rudolf Goldschmidt, Dimitri Haefliger, Hannes Hermanek, Donia Jornod, Ricardo Joss, Thierry Jöhl, Phillipp Kraus, Roberto Leggeri, Lukas Loosli, Jonas Meylan, Karin Pfeifer, Jeremy Ratib, Nancy Reuland, Daria Rey, Hanna Schlösser, Valentina Sieber, Anna Maria Stallmann, Kaspar Stöbe, Anastasia Vaynberg, Claartje Vuurmans, Sonja Widmer

ETH Zürich
Philip Ursprung, gta, ETH Zürich
Marcel Aubert, Block Research Group ETH Zürich
Alessandro Tellini, Raplab D-Arch ETH Zürich
Brigitte Schiesser, Legal Dept. ETH Zürich

Engineering
Hansbeat Reusser, Holzbaubüro Reusser GmbH
Christoph Müller, Holzbaubüro Reusser GmbH
Andreas Kocher, Holzbaubüro Reusser GmbH
Simon Rehm, Holzbaubüro Reusser GmbH
Samuel Jucker, Willy Stäubli Ing. AG
Robert Jockwer Institut für Baustatik und Konstruktion IBK ETH Zürich

Forestry
Kanton Zürich
Baudirektion
Amt für Landwirtschaft und Natur
Erwin Schmid
Waldwirtschaftsverband Zürich
Vereinigung der Zürcher Waldbesitzer
Kaspar Reutimann
Timber Processing
Martin Keller, Sägerei Konrad Keller AG
Holzwewrkstoffe Notter AG
Katharina Lehmann, Blumer-Lehmann AG

Timber construction
Hannes Jedele, Handholzwerk
Falco Horb, Handholzwerk
Laura Peisker, Handholzwerk
Karl Rühle

Gewerbliche Berufsschule Wetzikon
Peter Isler

Tools
Robert Bosch AG Power Tools
Raplab D-ARCH
Alessandro Tellini
Daniel Bachmann

Mechanical Fastening
Beat Ruch, SFS Unimarkt AG
Thomas Graber, SFS Unimarket AG

Roof Cladding
Gaudenz Wieland, Eternit AG
Ueli Schweizer, Eternit AG
Pierre Jelovcan , Preisig AG

Steel Prefabrication
Tanja Pichler, Stahlbau Pichler
Daniel Raffeiner, Stahlbau Pichler AG
Albert Hofer, Stahlbaupichler AG

Steel Assembly
Samuel Jucker, Willy Stäubli Ing AG

Scaffolding
Fix Gerüstbau AG
Beat and Gina Ingold

Stadt Zürich
Alex Schilling, Kultur Stadt Zürich
Werner Klaus, Wasserschutzpolizei Stadt Zürich

Lake
Beat Schwengeler, Zürcher Segelclub
Thomas Hartmann, Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft AG
Conny Hürlimann, Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft AG
Marco Rizzi, Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft AG

Fabrication Hall
Firma Geilinger AG
Andreas Gerster, Geilinger AG
Thomas Rickenbach, Geilinger AG

Construction Site
Kibag

Special Things
Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen AG (St. Gallen)

Film maker
Gavin Emerson, Holy Cow Productions

Helping Hands:
David Moser, Student ETH Zürich
Noël Picco, Student ETH Zürich
Lena Stolze, Student ETH Zürich
Lukas Fink, Student ETH Zürich
Micha Ringger, Student ETH Zürich
Milena Buchwalder, Student ETH Zürich
Beatriz Klettner Soler, Student ETH Zürich
Deborah Suter, Student ETH Zürich
Sebastian Oswald, Student ETH Zürich
Daniel Schneider, Student ETH Zürich
Tibor Rossi, Student ETH Zürich
Laszlo Blaser, Student ETH Zürich
Angela Burkart