studio ossidiana’s cylindrical pavilion connects land, sea, and history at bruges triennial

earthsea pavilion sits in 15th-century palace at bruges triennial

Studio Ossidiana connects land, sea, and history for the Bruges Triennial 2024 with the Earthsea Pavilion. Responding to the theme Spaces of Possibility, the cylindrical installation sits in the courtyard of a 15th-century palace in the UNESCO World Heritage City, allowing its substrata — as seen in archaeological surveys — to resurface.

The 6-metre-wide silo is composed of various materials, stacked on top of each other like individual ecosystems. A metal grid filled with earth, peat, shells, and leaves invites visitors to dissect the layers in more detail. Mixed into the construction are plants and flowers (in seed form) that, like the material layers themselves, will transform over time. As a result, the pavilion changes during the spring and summer months of the triennial, always providing new nutrients and becoming a natural pole of attraction for anyone seeking a sanctuary in the heart of the Belgian city.

studio ossidiana draws on the city’s history and links to the sea

Studio Ossidiana’s Earthsea Pavilion, inspired by Bruges’ rich history and its link to the sea, is one of the twelve new outdoor art installations for the fourth edition of Bruges Triennial, on view until September 1st, 2024. This year’s theme, Spaces of Possibility, is curated by Shendy Gardin and Sevie Tsampalla and invites artists and architects to activate different parts of the city with interactive interventions.

The Earthsea Pavilion brings nature back into the metropolis, inviting walkers, birds, and insects to take a moment to stop and pause. The Rotterdam-based firm positions the pavilion in a site that breathes history: Hof Bladelin, a building whose story dates to the year 1435. This spacious residence was commissioned by Pieter Bladelin, advisor to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, and subsequently owned by the House of Medici, the eminent Florentine banking family that continued to build their empire from this medieval satellite.

The site not only symbolises the growth and prosperity of Bruges in the Golden Age, but also the topical issues that arise in a UNESCO World Heritage context: how to ensure that historic properties do not become ghosts of the past, but continue to be dynamic and resonant buildings, both now and in the future.

‘Earthsea Pavilion is a living organism, a contemporary chimera made of minerals, plants, animals, organic matter, fungi and bacteria, collectively composing a new soil. It is both a garden and a building, a place of encounter and exchange between people and other forms of life. We find shelter within it as it grows, breathes, and changes over time, reacting to the weather as well as to the actions of its human and non-human inhabitants. We wander across it while its layers settle, while strata of organic matter become fertile soil, while water is filtered through its earthly walls, birds and bumble bees nest and build their hives, and fungi develop their web of relations,’ notes the design team.

project info:

name: Earthsea Pavilion
architect: Studio Ossidiana | @studio_ossidiana

program: Bruges Triennial 2024 | @triennalebrugge

dates: April 13th — September 1st, 2024

location: Bruges, Belgium

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