Articulated Timber Ground is a public pavilion designed and built by a group of Master in Architecture students at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The studio is led by Paul Loh and David Leggett (Power to Make). This project recieved a commendation award (Public Space) for Timber Vision Award 2015. “They (the judges) admired how the project is designed and engineered as an object, rather than relying on robotic assembly.”

The pavilion explores the relationship between ground and envelope; morphing the two together. It forms an intimate enclosure where students can gather together for intimate meetings and gathering. The pavilion acts as a piece of public furniture challenging the users to defi ne how they occupy space. The ruled surface structure is designed to responses to the ergonomic of the body. Consisting of 1,752 components, the pavilion changes its form throughout the sections, capturing the various human positions from seating to lounge position. The pavilion is designed to respond to the subtle ergonomic movement of the body through an innovative joint system which uses industrial rubber within the joint to act as a buffer. This allows the joint to bounce back and react to the user’s weight. The joint was load tested to destruction at the University’s Engineering Department and has proven to be stable for furniture use. In addition, a specially designed washer joint allows movement across the entire surface creating a network effect.

The design of the pavilion is a result of two rounds of design competition held by the studio. By the end of six weeks, the final design was selected and participating students joined forces to detail and construct the pavilion. The pavilion was purchased by the University of Melbourne as part of its public art collection and all funding received was donated to the Dr Bharat Dave Scholarship.

Participating students: Norhasnani Azman, Farheen Dossa, Jack Hinkson, Rachel Low, Siavash Malek, Amanda Ngieng, Ridho Prawiro, On On Tam, William Varrenti, Bo Woon Wong, Bingquan Zhang, Qingyue Zhang, Jia Jia Zheng, Shaobo Zhu

Structural Consultant: John Bahoric