Pavilion for an Artist, DHL Architecture, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

An ideas competition for Dutch collective Atelier Malkovich invited architects to address the shifting role of the artist in their designs for a park-bound pavilion outside of Amsterdam, and the eight winning entries (including this one) were built at half-scale. For DHL Architecture, the result is “half symbol, half piece of art.”

Click through for more on ‘Archive’ and its mirrorball brethren.

The half-scale model is a peculiar thing — inhabitable, almost, but still a model.

DHL Architecture describes the ideal patron for the pavilion as “an archivist in white shiny sneakers and skinny jeans.” Through various facets of life — coffeeshop to gallery, a rather cushy existence we might add — they “observe and record, gather and collect. They need a place where they can store their accumulated information… a safe place, a vault, to download and upload.”

So basically a giant, reflective USB drive.

So why the camouflage?

“It reflects the surroundings negating its own existence. Strange and impenetrable to the unaware, only the owner knows its secrets. The large cabinet doors are almost invisible and the entrance must be discovered… A narrow slit allows the passer by a brief opportunity to glimpse the garden and at a stretch they can peer over the parapet while the owner is tucked away underneath.”

And a lovely shed it is. But while we’re on the topic of camouflaged-by-reflective-surface buildings, here are five more projects that fit the bill:

The tree hotel in a forest is a lightweight aluminium structure hung around a tree trunk, a box four meters cubed clad in mirrored glass. Tham & Videgård Arkitekter. Harads, Sweden. (2010.)

The very similar mirrored treehouse concept designed by Fabian Dembski. (Unbuilt.)

Mobex is a mobile pavilion that displays art projects that follow, and reflect upon, the urban development of a housing development in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht. ELstudio. Mobile exhibition in The Netherlands. (2005.)

Weekend retreat for a writer is a classic New England saltbox house from the 1860s with new, completely mirrored facades. Axis Mundi. Hudson Valley, New York. (Unbuilt.)

Sky Mirrors kite — small-scale design made of five faceted 2-foot mylar panels connected by nearly invisible translucent zip-tie hinges. Haptic Lab Inc.

by Kelsey Keith

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tagged dhl architecture, mirror, netherlands, pavilion, temporary architecture, trends

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