ZeitRäume Pavilion

Temporary pavilion for the first biennial for contemporary music and architecture ZeitRäume in Basel, Switzerland.

The pavilion is positioned for the duration of the festival on the Kleinbasel bridgehead of Mittlere Brücke, the central bridge in Basel's city center. This place is spatially exposed and acoustically concise, as it forms a barrier between two different urban sound spaces: between the acoustically enclosed and noisy Greifengasse with the specific sounds of trams and busy people on one side and the open and more quiet acoustic space on towards the Rhine.

The construction consists of simple parts that we all know and which are assembled into a nearly six meter high object: a large drum made of bamboo poles with a roof of scaffolding brackets. But this simple object does something that we do not expect and that irritates us in built structures: the roof moves in the wind.

Under the oscillating roof in four meters height, the pavilion provides seating accommodations and information about the biennial. The thus created temporary space becomes a memorable abode for pedestrians and a central meeting point for the duration of the festival — without engaging in the characteristic of the acoustic properties and depriving the space from the public.