Bartlett student wins Cornish pavilion competition

Unit 21's 5th year student, Alex Gazetas, has won the Tremenheere Sculpture Garden Pavilion Competition.

Tremenheere Sculpture Garden is a newly opened garden in Penzance, Cornwall housing works by James Turrell, David Nash and Kishio Suga amongst others. It is situated within the arc of Mounts Bay, locally known as the ‘Golden Mile’, and faces the landmark of St Michael’s Mount.

Inspired by work at the Bartlett School of Architecture the garden’s founder, Dr Neil Armstrong, asked students of Unit 21 to submit designs for the new building. The brief for the pavilion required it to house a range of exhibitions and events for both Tremenheere and the local community. It is to be located adjacent to the newly opened Lime Tree Cafe, shop and offices, which is the first in a series of planned works. Alex Gazetas’s proposal was selected by Dr Armstrong from 15 invited entries. His winning design will be built and preliminary discussions for planning are already underway.

The intention behind the winning Pavilion is to manifest the world of hidden information into physical form. The ambition is to convey the sense that what is perceived as nothing can reveal a complex datascape. A 20m x 40m grid on the site was surveyed for lux levels at 3 height levels and this information was frozen into a point cloud of data. From the resulting 2580 vertices a network of layered meshes were developed to create a light cloud of roof, ceiling, floor, lighting, screening and structural elements.

The fibreglass Pavilion roof will be made by a local boat builder who created the oval form of the James Turrell ‘Skyspace’ in the garden.

Tremenheere Sculpture Garden