Burnham Pavilion by UNStudio

Placed on the unique location in the middle of Millennium Park framed by the Lake Michigan on one site and Michigan Avenue on the other, the UNStudio pavilion relates itself to diverse city-contexts, -programs and -scales. Programmatically the pavilion invites people to, gather together, walk around and through, to explore and watch. The UNStudio pavilion is sculptural, very accessible and it acts as an urban activator.

The design of the UNStudio pavilion initially uses the orthogonal setup of the city and park grid. The edges of the pavilion follow the severe setup of the surrounding city- and park-geometry. Burnham’s Plan one hundred years ago introduced that generic grid as main generator of the city texture but also introduced a device to read specificity and variation in the form of the diagonal boulevards creating specific vistas throughout the city.

The UNStudio pavilion is operating similarly, but using the entire spectrum of 360 degrees. Instead of Burnham’s tectonic layering of the city the pavilion introduces in a floating and continuous form a gradient between its ingredients of floor, wall and ceiling. The hierarchy of either being horizontal or vertical is converted into an understanding of a space of continuous transformation and fluidity.

The initially horizontal panorama on top of the pavilion’s podium smoothly shifts diagonally into the three roof openings, framing vertical views of the city skyline. The ambivalence of directionality and the introduction of continuous flow of the structure allow to smoothly opening-up spaces, directions and importantly the most diverse vistas to frame and read the city context.

Material:

- Main: Steel structure of columns in the three “legs” of the pavilion and horizontal steel beams

-Secondary: wooden rib structure to form smooth geometry

-Third: plywood paneling to form skin of pavilion

-Finish: bondo (=elastic plaster) and paint

Light installation:

To emphasize the shape and geometry of the building also throughout night time, a sophisticated lighting device is introduced. Build into the podium of the pavilion a system of 49 LED lights illuminates the fluid forms of the pavilion in between the too horizontal levels of podium and roof. In real-time the ever changing animation of light varies in light intensity, color spectrum and inter-actively the rhythm of activation.

Project credits:

UNStudio

Ben van Berkel,  Caroline Bos with Christian Veddeler, Wouter de Jonge and Hans-Peter Nuenning, Ioana Sulea

Garofalo Architects.

Douglas Garofalo with Grant Gibson

Photos credits are attributed to Christian Richters

UNStudio Via