switch+ | modulorbeat

switch+ | modulorbeat

This golden structure is a temporary pavilion designed by Germany practice architect modulorbeat, use of striking color for perforated skin has successfully drawn our attention, while creating a new street images to the city.

+ Project description below provided by architect, modulorbeat

switch+, a golden pavilion for sculpture projects muenster 07

The switch+ information centre, a temporary structure specially designed for the internationally renowned outdoor exhibition sculpture projects muenster 07, offers a central location for services related to the exhibition, including an information point, catalogue sales, rentals of the multimedia tour system, and a specialty bookshop.

A twelve meter high parallelepiped, which is clad on all sides with golden copper alloy panels, was built adjacent to the Museum of Art and Cultural History and the exhibition project office on an open square that has been unused up to now. The project makes interesting references to its direct surroundings and its own function. The golden surface takes on the colour of the writing designed by artist Martin Schmidl for Skulptur Projekte Münster 07, that is decorating the façade of a building close to the pavilon and marking the location of the exhibition project office.

With colour, materials and its evenly distributed round perforations of varying diameter, the building also reacts to the light installation “Silver Frequency” created by the artist Otto Piene in the 1970’s for the museum façade across the way.

The function of the switch+ pavilion is revealed by examining its name: The eastern side of the lower half of the façade, facing the street corner, rests on slide rollers and can be moved so that entrances on both sides of the information centre close or open. In this way, various ”switch settings” emerge as recommendations for pedestrians passing by, that, when open, invite them to the southern entrance and the information stand.

On the other side, visitors are guided to the north entrance over a jagged landscape – part of the overall design of the public square – consisting of varying heights and irregularly arranged steps and levels, all made out of plywood.

The bookshop on the mid-level is accessible from the entrance on the west side, located higher up and leading to the rooftop terrace café on the top floor via a wooden staircase. Seen from the inside, the frame of the pavilion appears as a simple steel grid construction, onto which the Gold cassettes are directly fastened without a substructure. The floors are made of plywood boards on battens.

With the exception of the bookshop, which is protected from wind and weather on all sides by tarpaulins of the kind otherwise used for trucks, all areas are separated from the outside world alone by the perforated metal skin. This creates fascinating views. Particularly in the evening, when the pavilon seems to glow due to the interior lighting and a soft shimmer is cast through the perforations, a wonderful play of light and space is created in combination with the activated light installation on the museum façade, even more fascinating regarding the fact that this Piene work is so urgently in need of renovation.

The reactions to this pavilion and its golden cladding, which draws all eyes upwards and is so very unusual for Münster’s usual cityscape, are numerous: Passers-by photograph the object as often as the sculptures on display, touch the pleasantly smooth surface in disbelief, caress the perforations as if they were looking for an explanation for the impressive façade image. Children from the neighbouring summer academy romp over the wooden stair landscape between the pavilion and museum, blow bubbles in the air and, unbeknownst to them, add an additional design element to the façade image across the way…

Location Plan courtesy modulorbeat

Floor Plans courtesy modulorbeat

West Elevation + Section courtesy modulorbeat

+ Project data

Project: Switch+, golden Pavilion for “skulptur projekte münster 2007″
Client: LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte
Architect: modulorbeat
Location: Münster, Germany

+ About modulorbeat

modulorbeat is dedicated to the development and realization of interdisciplinary projects in the fields of architecture, design and urbanism.

Marc Günnewig (born in 1973 in Münster) studied architecture and graduated (M.A. Arch) at the University of Applied Sciences Münster and was a scientific assistant at the Technical University of Berlin in 2004. Since 2008 he teaches at the RWTH Aachen University.

Jan Kampshoff (born 1975 in Rhede / Westf.) studied and graduated (M.A. Arch) also at the University of Applied Sciences Münster, he received the Rector Award 2005 of his University for his outstanding M.A.Thesis “X over DAUGAVA” of the year 2004. Since 2009 He teaches at the University of Wuppertal.

In the past years, modulorbeat realized numerous temporary architectures and studies, for examples: Switch +, temporary pavilion for the sculpture projects Münster 2007 // Kubik, temporary lighting installations (Berlin 2006, Lisbon and Barcelona 2007) // Halle3b*, a temporary installation in the former Osmo Halls in Münster (2003), RIX.TEMP within the context of the international competition “proposals for the embankment of river Daugava development” (Riga, 2003), Mindmapping Nowa Huta, a workshop in Nowa Huta (2003)

+ Exhibitions (Selection):

• “InterActive: New Technologies in Contemporary Architecture“, 2008/09 Bernoudy Gallery of Architecture, St. Louis, USA
• “Glow: Forum of Light in Art and Architecture“, 2008, Eindhoven, NL
• “UNAUFGERÄUMT / AS FOUND - Urban reanimations and the minimal intervention“, 2007, Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel
• “dis|play - tendencies in pixel architecture“, 2007, Mediaruimte showroom for electronic art, Brussels
• “The Futurism of Industrial Cities – 100 Years of Wolfsburg/Nowa Huta“, 2005/06, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Laznia Nowa, Cracow-Nowa Huta
• “SFX:Publicznosc“, 2005, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
• “Export - a strategy for new work, or proof of German design quality?“, 2005, DAZ Deutsches Architektur Zentrum, Berlin

+ Awards

• Bauwelt Prize 2009
• Award for young artists of the state North Rhine-Westphalia 2008
• contractworld.award 2009
• TECU® ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2007

+ All drawings and images courtesy modulorbeat | Photos copyright by KME / Christian Richters and Thorsten Arendt / Artdoc.de

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