ASRM-Zukunftspavillon
In the summer of 2015 the most recent edition of the festival "Architektursommer Rhein Main" took place. As part of the event, a temporary building, the "ASRM-Zukunftspavillon" was constructed in the city center of Frankfurt/Main.
The site of the project is an elongate combination of two badly defined public spaces. The pavilion was placed strategically at the intersection of the two areas and helps containing the now separated spaces.
The temporary building is a wooden structure made out of laminated timber beams clad with a translucent skin of corrugated plastic. There are two inserted blocks that house a bar and secondary spaces and on the long sides of the building two large sliding doors opening towards the newly defined urban spaces on either side of the block and offer a view from one to the other. Opening these doors lets the building "breathe" - people crossing the square are invited into the interior of the pavilion and the activities inside the building can spill out onto the surrounding squares.
The facades are lined with wooden "flower-boxes" that contain salads, herbs and vegetables, cared for by a local urban gardening project, that also runs the bar and organized the follow-up program after the end of the architecture festival.
The project had a temporary building permit that ended in April of 2017. The pavilion will now be dismantled and shipped to Hamburg, in order to be reconstructed on a peninsula in the river Elbe. Although the Zukunftspavillon only had a guest performance in Frankfurt it will leave lasting mark in the city: after its great success the government is considering a permanent building on the very site, redefining the surrounding spaces constantly and hopefully giving permanent activity to its vicinity.
All images were taken during "Poesie des Wohnens" – an urban art & architecture project during the summer of 2016 initiated by Aileen Treusch and Jon Prengel.
