croatia's floating pavilion for venice architecture biennale

croatia’s ‘floating pavilion’ for the 12th international architecture biennale in venice, italy image courtesy pavilion.hr photo by zelimir grzancic

for the event of this year’s venice architecture biennale, croatia has designed and built a floating pavilion on an existing barge to be tugged by a tow boat to the site of the international event. constructed out of 32 tons of steel, the structure’s form is defined by a methodical system consisting of over 40 layers of welded Q385 wire mesh. each layer contours at varying depths and lengths to create a carved out space which plays with different transparencies, densities, and vision lines. despite the solid and heavy materials, the resulting effect is a blurring of form;at a distance, the pavilion conveys elements of fragility and lightness. the project is a collaborative effort by 14 croatian architects and members of the local maritime industry.

however, despite the relatively short journey from croatia to venice, the pavilion experienced structural problems and never made it to the italian site.

in phase of collapse image courtesy katarina olujic

image by robert les

image courtesy katarina olujic

image courtesy katarina olujic

completed form, before leaving for venice image courtesy pavilion.hr

interior view image courtesy pavilion.hr

night view image courtesy pavilion.hr

shots of the pavilion at the rijeka port in croatia images courtesy pavilion.hr

the floating pavilion sailing for venice image courtesy pavilion.hr photo by zelimir grzancic

project credit:

commissioner: leo modrčin architects: saša begović, marko dabrović, igor franić, tanja grozdanić, petar mišković, silvije novak, veljko oluić, helena paver njirić, lea pelivan, toma plejić, goran rako, saša randić, idis turato, pero vuković, tonči zarnić maritime consultant: miljenko gržalja structural engineer: zvonimir sabljak naval architecture: nicola ferrari principal contractor: an.ta.so.mont