raumlaborberlin

The site of the new pavilion is located just east of the historical centre of the city of Poznan, on the touristic connection between the rynek, main square and the cathedral island.

The main fields of business that gave Poznan it’s economic importance and make it the second productive city of Poland after Warsaw are commerce and industries.

As part of this historical heritage, the site of the former gasworks is located just beside the city’s centre and today presents a collection of outstanding architectures of neogothic style. made in brick. The current program of the buildings is gas company administration, storage and disuse.

The most important memory of the site of the pavilion is, that it is located in the middle of a former riverbed. The void, created by the disappearance of the water is very dominant in the atmosphere of the place.  Today the water has been followed by a flow of cars, and the open spaces are mainly used for payed car parks. This program underlines a certain sadness in the atmosphere, a feeling of something absent, a shape cut or severe loss.

In awareness of the outstanding qualities of the site the first reaction for the design of the pavilion was to work with perfect geometries.  As the water is missing in the site, the construction of an abstract body could be read as an attempt to re-insert a new entity as a whole.

In further considerations visual connections became more important. Walking through city streets, behind every corner lurks a surprise. The desire for a generous overview grows.

Using the periscope of submarines as a reference, a cubically shaped. Tower like building becomes imaginable.