The Forest
Competition entry for Wonderfruit’s Super Green, Super Lean, and Super Clean Pavilion.
The Forest is not a building. The Forest is a living landscape that grows and evolves. In The Forest, architecture is nothing else than a framework that defines a minimal controlled space surrounded by living bamboo, whose boundaries expand with time according to the unpredictable vitality of Nature.
Scope
Research
Design Development
Visual Production
Team
Gianmaria Socci
Kan Vajaranant
Panyanus Jansomwong
Duration
2 Month
Year
2022
About the Project
The Forest is a living landscape that grows and evolves. In The Forest, architecture is nothing else than a framework that defines a minimal controlled space surrounded by living bamboo, whose boundaries expand with time according to the unpredictable vitality of Nature. The Forest exemplifies the core values of Wonderfruit, the enjoyment of the outdoors, the strong sense of community, the strive for sustainability, the desire to leave no trace. Like in ancient ruins, The Forest will eventually dissolve into a natural ecosystem, its artificial marks blending seamlessly into the context as a reminder of a joyful, sustainable society.
In this modern industrial age, staying true to humble local material while maintaining innovation sustainability is a rare combination as it hardly beats the convenience of instant materials and inclination for temporal comfort in an instant rather than longer lasting simplicity that takes more time setting up. This proposal take advantage of nature and its property, fully utilising the life span of bamboos from start to end. So that it can serve its purposes along the timeline. Shaping space and boundary of the pavilion as it grows.
The Forest has a clearly defined beginning, but it has no end. The current rate of deforestation in the world and in Thailand will soon leave us with out forests, which means without oxygen, resources and biodiversity. Let’s not build more buildings, let’s build forests!
The Pavilion
Multiple entrance paths lead to a central exhibition space. The path is like a trail in the forest. Stones line up to create sitting space, the translucent canopy defines the space while opening up to reveal the thick bamboo mass.
A lightweight, waterproof canopy runs around the central space. It is hanging from the surrounding bamboo stems and relies on a central rigid rim, also built in bamboo. The topography rises slightly towards the central opening.
Circular pocket spaces open up towards the center like clearings in the forest. Here, behind the curtains, hammock-like structures hang from the surrounding bamboo providing an intimate break from the communal activities.
The Forest’s predicted growth.
The Bamboo
The stems have solidifies and the rhizome spread across a vast area. New species populate the ground and the foliage. Mature Bamboo can be harvested and used as sound structural material for future Wonderfruit contruction. The “architecture” has dissolved in the forest, the paths remains to testify its past, the Bamboo lives a new life as new structures of future events.
