“The repetition of a timber frame”

The project is a large-scale temporary installation created for the Lollapalooza Music Festival, which is held in one of Chile’s most historical and largest urban parks. Its objective is to raise awareness of the ocean pollution caused by disposable plastics.

The pavilion presents the accumulated plastic and waste in their discarded state, just as they are found floating in the sea, like a true island. We were not interested in attractively presenting the garbage; we preferred to make a statement by showing it in its raw state.

Therefore, we installed a ton of plastic and other waste material above the heads of spectators and visitors. To hold it, we constructed a transparent inverted dome, using fishing nets with tensors, to be filled with garbage and single-use waste products.

An inverted dome is a unique and singular form that generates an interesting space underneath. The wooden structure is configured by repeating a single piece, which alludes to wooden piers on every coastline worldwide. The structure can be easily set up and taken down without generating further waste, and it can be put to a new use in a different place.

The project is an artifact that stands out unexpectedly in the middle of the park. The perimeter structure was designed to allow people to sit, rest, and walk on it, while the inner part, beneath the dome, provides a place for gathering and contemplation.

Its plan is circular, a shape that functions very well in the park’s open space since it looks the same from every angle and can be inserted anywhere. A circumference is the most efficient shape for supporting the inverted dome because the weight and forces are distributed equally across the structure.

Imaginary credits:

(1-2) Floating Sea waste islands
(3-4) “Plastic Ocean” by Tan Zi Xi. Singapore Art Museum, 2016.
(5-6) San Simeon Pier, California.
(7) Prestressed inverted dome, Camp Columbia shelter, Lichtfield, Conn. 1957
(8). Brazil National Congress Building, Oscar Niemeyer 1956-1960

Lollapalooza 2018, Chile

Studio: Guillermo Hevia García Architects

Associated architect: Pedro Pablo González

Collaborator: Felipe Droppelmann

Built by: Alejandro Cepeda

Photography: Nico Saieh

Drone Phonograph: “X” LollaCL

Other works by the author – Breathing Machine

Other works by the author – Breathing Building