The Reverberation Pavilion of Light and Sound, designed by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban for SHISEIDO, uses a tensile structure and acrylic sheets to envelope a space using the minimum material and power.
Pavilion of Light and Sound technical information
- Architects : Shigeru Ban
- Typology: Cultural Architecture / Installation
- Location: Venice, Italy
- Client: clé de peau BEAUTÉ – SHISEIDO
- Completion: 2015
- Materials: Acrylic Sheets
- Evocative topics: Japanese Houses, Tensile Structure
- Photographs: © Courtesy of Shigeru Ban
When I stood in the courtyard of the Palazzo Pisani Conservatory, I heard sounds from out of nowhere. These sounds were not music per se, but rather a component of the unique environment of this space.
– Shigeru Ban
Pavilion of Light and Sound Photographs
Article by Shigeru Ban Architects
When enveloping together a space using the minimum material and power, a tensile structure* is ideal. To cut out a space surrounded by the narrow historical facade of Palazzo Pisani, I have used acrylic sheets for the exterior of the pavilion, and allowed them to hang in a natural suspension, creating a parabola.
The first time I saw the palette of clé de peau BEAUTÉ, the dark blue colors looked to me like a tile that reflects and absorbs light. So I’ve taken this case and stuck them on both sides of the acrylic sheets, spaced in 9 mm gaps, just like tiles.
They reflect light, and make darkness in the interior and through the spaces between them, a wavering light which is characteristic of Venice, flows into the structure reflected from surface of the water functioned as a fixed weight.
When I stood in the courtyard of the Palazzo Pisani Conservatory, I heard sounds from out of nowhere. These sounds were not music per se, but rather a component of the unique environment of this space.
This is a space filled with mysterious light and shadows, and harmonious sounds. This is not makeup applied to a historical facade, but rather a method for drawing out the charm of the existing context.
*Tensile structure: A structure that maintains stability not through pressure and flexion, but instead is held together by tension.
Pavilion of Light and Sound Gallery
Pavilion of Light and Sound Video
making of “REVERBERATION — Pavilion of Light and Sound” designed by Shigeru Ban in Venice
