Gabonsa Pavilion
Developed and constructed by students of Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the local collectives Gans Anders and Bonanza
The project was developed through a collaboration between students from Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences and the Innsbruck-based collectives Gans Anders and Bonanza. As part of the Gabonsa Music Festival, the students designed a temporary pavilion for the Rossau Recreation Centre, a former municipal landfill site that the collectives seek to reactivate as a public space through cultural events. The result is a hybrid structure situated at the intersection of furniture, installation, and architecture, functioning simultaneously as seating landscape, landmark, and social meeting point while embodying the festival’s experimental spirit.
Developed through an ongoing dialogue with the collectives and a close reading of the site, the design takes the form of a terraced pavilion positioned on a small hill between the festival’s main stage and workshop area. Acting as both a spatial connector and a visual landmark, the structure offers a variety of seating and reclining possibilities, framing different views of the surrounding landscape and the festival while inviting visitors to pause, observe, and interact.
The construction follows the principles of simplicity, resource efficiency, and reversibility. Owing to the pavilion’s temporary nature, limited budget, and tight construction schedule, the structure is composed exclusively of 4-metre timber beams connected with simple screw joints. Wet connections such as adhesives or cast joints were deliberately avoided in line with circular construction principles. The timber members were cut only where structurally necessary, allowing most components to be reused in their original dimensions after the festival.
Complementing the straightforward timber structure, ordinary off-the-shelf construction materials are removed from their conventional purpose and reinterpreted within a new spatial context. This experimental approach to everyday materials becomes a central design strategy, generating unexpected spatial and aesthetic qualities through simple means. A semicircular element clad in reflective construction foil mirrors the sky and surrounding mountain landscape, visually extending the site while simultaneously establishing the pavilion as a landmark within the festival grounds. A canopy made from aluminium vapour barrier provides shade and creates a sheltered outdoor room, while an orange construction safety net, suspended beneath it as a hammock, transforms an ordinary building material into a place for rest and retreat. Red-painted bracing elements articulate the structural system, making its construction legible. The pavilion is anchored to the ground using ground screws and red tension straps, allowing for a minimally invasive installation and complete disassembly after the festival.
The pavilion accommodates different forms of occupation and appropriation. Towards the main stage, the structure unfolds as a stepped grandstand that embraces the energy of the festival, while towards the workshop area it transitions into a more sheltered space for retreat. Rather than defining an enclosed building, the pavilion operates as an open spatial framework that mediates between landscape, festival, and visitors. In doing so, the project explores how simple means, everyday materials, and temporary construction can generate spaces that foster orientation, encounter, and atmosphere.
CREDITS
Client: Gabonsa Festival
Educational Program: Construction Course, Interior Architecture Department, Hochschule Kaiserslautern
Design & Build team: Lucy Hartmann, Stella Feuerstein, Rafal Basim Danial, Vladyslava Borzova, Leah Uhlmann, Luana Vilela Ferreira Teixeira
Academic supervisors: Prof. Fabian Wagner, Louise Daussy, Antonio Winter-schlaf, Nils Fischer. Structural Engineering: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Larissa Krieger
In collaboration with: Bonanza & Gans Anders
Drawings: © Nils Fischer I Louise Daussy
Photography: © Susanne Oberhollenzer I Toni Schade I Christoph Schwarz I Fabian Wagner
Modell: © Nils Fischer
