menomonee valley park pavilion

‘menomonee valley park pavilion’ in milwaukee, wisconsin all images © kyle talbott

conceived for the second bi-annual marcus prize, berlin-based barkow liebinger architects and professor kyle talbott of the university of wisconsin school of architecture and urban planning have led a group of students to design a small scale shelter on a brown field site in milwaukee, wisconsin. ‘menomonee valley park pavilion’ puts focus on site-specific design, exploring the overlapping moment between the area’s industrial and natural elements. the ecological reclamation project is the first in a series of pavilions that will be built in the public parkway.

context

constructed out of plywood, glue-laminated beams, and a system of v-shaped steel columns, the free-standing pavilion is transparent in its structure, leaving exposed all of its building components. the leaf-shaped roof is topped off with translucent corrugated polycarbonate, allowing a large level of sunlight to filter through. towards the back, a small enclosure constructed out of recycled black locust hardwood provides storage for landscaping tools. the positioning and orientation of the pavilion ensures direct views of a nearby river and remains accessible to the rest of the park through a network of bike paths.

the result of an intensive process of fabricating and testing, the project addresses constructability, material behaviour, and durability in the wisconsin climate. students worked with full-scale mock-ups before building prefabricated components at an off-site workshop, working with local metal manufacturers to mass-customize steel plates and connectors. the floor of the pavilion uses stone pavers that have been reclaimed from a nearby closed pabst brewery.

view of roof structure from underneath

detail

approach

rendering

3D model of roof structure

beam diagram

beam drawing