Orchid Pavilion

The partnership
This proposal arises from a partnership that forms a meeting point for the interests of each of the team members: a model-maker, a photographer, a landscape architecture studio and an architecture studio, which operate within the traditional boundaries of their professions.

The delivery
The proposal is presented in the form of three 60 x 45 cm photographs of a 1:20 scale model. A text accompanies this triptych to explain the ideas the describe the design tools used in the project for the pavilion, explaining the project, concept and research in three sections, as requested in the competition brief.

Personal Interests
The model
As architects our focus is on producing drawings. We transmit ideas and solutions through drawings, sketches, collages and images. We express all our information in documents that will be interpreted (by ourselves and others) to bring about a built space. The plan is the ‘generator’ that contains all the information necessary and in which our thoughts are given form; its relationship with architecture is based on its ability to transmit the indications, measurements and procedures in a clear and precise manner, to ensure the result is legible, palpable, buildable and habitable. The model is a translation of the plan and it complements this spatial exploration.

The photograph
We use the photograph as a design tool. We generate and share architecture through it; we like to understand it and use it not only as a medium for documentation and archiving, but as a medium for designing projects. Through the image, we compose and put to the test our process and the discoveries that emerge from it to capture spaces and environments that complement a project and aren’t always necessarily physically available to all.

The landscape
As landscape architects, we constantly question our ways of interacting with nature and where we should intervene to achieve the right balance between built and living space. We work on the basis of the story a site tells, observing its ecosystems, composition, strength and potential in combination with the requirements, aspirations and inspirations of the project. Through exhaustive research in the fields of botany, archeology, infrastructure and art, our work seeks to represent the complexity and richness of natural ecosystems and the deep respect we must show them. This approach is reflected in projects on all scales, both practical and theoretical, that involve both people and the natural environment.

The architecture
In the architecture studio we work with three principal elements: object, user and context, and it is in the collision between these three that our architecture emerges.

The brief and the proposal
Architecture competitions are platforms that invite us to try out radical ideas, to put them to the test in a practical context where the rules and restrictions are nothing other than tools that should be used for the project. In this case, this competition represents the opportunity to try out the ideas generated by our personal interests (those of a person, a team, a group or a collaboration; both individual and group) and set them against the expectations of the competition and its rules.

What is interesting is when these ideas (radical and cutting-edge) take their questioning beyond the status quo and the present moment and reach something that is viable, buildable and palpable. Sometimes this means questioning the rules, and proposing a variable that enables the ideas and expectations to materialize.

In 1971, Rogers and Piano left ‘empty’ (or unused, or unbuilt) 50% of the site intended for the Centre Pompidou, and decided to break the rule about height; with plenty of justification, they succeeded in integrating the museum into the city of Paris, turning it into a public space and an extension of its streets and plazas. In 2002, Rem and OMA also challenged the site proposed for the competition (won but unbuilt) for the new Conference Centre of Córdoba, Spain, achieving unexpected connections that were more fruitful for the city’s future.**

**Note: we present these examples solely as a framework for change and to learn from great past architects and projects.

For the Orchid Pavilion we propose a roof measuring 12 x 18 m, that is 215 m2 rather than the 50 m2 given in the rules. This variation to the standard is—in our view—the gesture that can enable the program to operate correctly and the element that allows the orchids —as the principal user of this project— to develop in an appropriate setting.

Orchids and Oaxaca
Orchids are an eccentric and diverse group of plants, from thie size, which varies from just a few millimeters to over 10 meters in length, as well as their habitat requirements (or artificial conditions). They grow all around the planet with the exception of the poles and the deserts, and have found their preferred natural environment in the tropics (intertropical climate). In Mexico there are over 1,400 varieties, many of which are at risk of extinction due to the disappearance of their ecosystems. In the region of Oaxaca some of the world’s most outstanding varieties are found in the oak forests. Vanillas, epidendrums and terrestrial or climbing orchids are just a few of the wide range of this elegant plant found here, as well as the lithophytes, which grow on rocks. On the coast of Oaxaca species of both terrestrial orchids and epiphytes are found that have adapted to the low deciduous forest and the coastal dune system.

The pavilion and its awning
The design of the orchid pavilion explores—like all the studio’s projects—the collision and the relationship between the architectural object, the user and the context into which it is inserted, and seeks to resolve in precise form the needs and requirements of a pavilion as particular as this one.

Requirements

1. To be inserted in a specific site and in such a manner as to apprise and avail of the advantages and disadvantages it may have in relation to the growth, maintenance and propagation of orchids.
2. Generate the ideal space and setting for the orchids (user A) to grow correctly.
3. Generate the ideal space and setting for visitors (user B) to enjoy the relation with the pavilion, whether in providing care and maintenance, or when visiting.

The three components of the proposal (elements, tour and awning)
The project comprises two moments; the first is the pavilion itself (located at the center of the site indicated in the competition rules and occupying a surface area of approximately 50 m2), which is composed of five elements and a platform or route. The elements are the rooms which the users (orchids and visitors) inhabit.

A concrete bench measuring 3.6 m in length provides a place for rest, contemplation or discussion (educational/didactic) at the center of the pavilion. A second block of concrete measuring 120 x 240 m is positioned as part of the route and functions as the seedbed and the work table for the pavilion. The third concrete block is a 2.4 m-diameter pool of water that, together with sprinkler irrigation, helps to maintain the humidity necessary to activate the environment and make it suitable for the program of the pavilion.

A sandbank, a tree trunk and a rock comprise the garden, offering different possibilities for a range of species to find a niche to grow in, together with the existing vegetation.

These elements are strategically arranged as individual pieces that together make sense and complement the route in a kind of artificial nature that merges with the immediate surroundings and existing vegetation.

The second moment is the awning: a tubular structure measuring 215 m2 that provides shadow for the complex and its perimeter, with the aim of generating the ideal space for both users (orchids and visitors) and for the

It should be noted that this site and zone are not suited to generating this specific environment, which is why it must be generated by means of, firstly, this artificial setting that is found in the display and in plant pots, as an exhibition rather than a botanic garden, and secondly this 12 x 18 m awning that covers not only the pavilion but also the surrounding area, taking advantage of the existing vegetation and using it as an extension of the pavilion and providing shade around its sides.

This roof serves to extend the perimeter and integrate the existing vegetation, making this latter an extension of the pavilion, where the cuachalalas, guayacanes and plum trees will act as a natural base for the new orchids to expand into, with the result that the pavilion is not limited to being artificial, constructed nature, but extends and blurs the limits between natural and artificial.

The edges of the roof are raised and extend beyond the columns, embracing the existing vegetation and enabling it to grow outside of the boundaries established, generating the lateral shade necessary for the pavilion to fulfil its intended purpose.

The roof is made from a greenhouse-style metal structure, with 12 columns measuring 2” in diameter, arranged six on each side 3.6 m apart; these are set on individual bases measuring 0.9 m and 1.2 m in depth (as required by the soil mechanics for the sandy coastal setting), which are hidden by the existing vegetation. The 12 columns carry an inverted curve or catenary structure measuring 12 x 18 m that is covered in a shade mesh, the only element that can be replaced as a result of use and maintenance.