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Pavilion, Athens

Interactive pavilion

ATHENS (GR) - Clay, especially in brick form, is one of the most commonly used building materials across millennia of human civilization. A solid, readily identifiable and often raw substance, it is able to form immense structures and yet remains readable and familiar at the human scale.

Taking clay brick as its primary medium, mab architects has assembled a pavilion and interactive light installation combination in an emblematic entwining of ancient and new. The intriguing concept, titled 'plinthos' after the Greek word for brick, is comprised of more than 21,800 of them, set in such a manner as to reveal the porous sides, which in other structural contexts are usually hidden. As such, the brick walls become something they are typically not – transparent.

Laid out in an irregular geometrical membrane, with one side folded inwards to serve as ingress, the simple walled structure forms a sort of chamber, isolating except for the fact of its myriad perforations. Sprouting from the floor within are stem light fittings, which serve as the installation's interactive mechanisms. By touching or shaking these stem lights in various ways, users are able to initiate a unique multi-sensory performance of sound and light that enters the permeable space from without. In this way, plinthos works counter to preconceived notions of how users should respond to such brick-enclosed constructions, transforming the pavilion by inviting exploration and play through tactile, auditory and ocular channels.

The architects explain the process in detail: 'A camera records the movement of these fittings and transmits it to a computer. The computer transforms the visual signal into frequencies and finally translates them into a visual and audio installation. Each of the stem light fittings triggers a distinctive interplay of sounds recorded from the pavilion construction phase and affect the color changing lighting performance.' Upon triggering the installation, anyone located within the space is suddenly subjected to seemingly random reactions, immersed in layers of improvised stimuli from multiple directions, as seen in this video. Concurrently, the experiencer becomes fully engaged as both performer and observer of the complex phenomenon he/she has generated with barely any effort at all.