Wooden island on Lake Zurich

The European Biennial of Contemporary Art "Manifesta 11" took place in Zurich, Switzerland, from 11 June to 18 September 2016. This touring exhibition brings the visual arts into the urban, social, historical, economic, ecological and architectural context of each host city. In 2016, the main attraction was the wooden island - a pavilion of prefabricated wooden structures that served as the exhibition's reception.

A wooden island considered waste

The project was developed by the Tom Emerson Design Studio in Zurich together with more than 30 students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and is called Pavilion of Reflections (Reflections Pavilion). The pavilion is actually a floating island that will stay on the lake for 100 days until the end of the exhibition.

The design was inspired by the city's inhabitants' appetite for bathing, a tradition that goes way back to Roman times. Zurich has the highest density of public bathing spots, places where people gather to socialise and hang out. The island has been designed as a multi-purpose floating platform, bringing people together both day and night. During the day people gather at the pool in the central area of the pavilion for a swim or sunbathe on the specially designed deck. In the evening they can sit in front of the giant LED screen of the ad-hoc cinema, at the bar or chat in the specially designed area for debating art exhibits all over the city.

The wooden structure was assembled separately using 150,000 screws. The wood used is from Swiss forests, wood that is attacked by insects and considered waste, which would have been burnt if not used in this project. After the component structures were made separately, some of them even from the winter, they were brought in and assembled on the lake on a steel structure.

The floating reception stood on Lake Zurich for the entire period of the biennial and was dismantled after 100 days at the end of the exhibition.

source: inhabitat.com