Climate-Correcting Machine - Perpetual Spring Pavilion
The Perpetual Spring Pavilion will serve as a one-of-a-kind prototype showcasing the functional aspects of urban community gathering: a building as an artificially-controlled greenhouse machine to address and bring attention to a pressing global issue of our time: climate change. Combining form and destination with function, the Pavilion is proposed as a “climate-correcting machine,” both a platform for awareness and an invitation to action.
As if it were the head of some giant insect, the Perpetual Spring Pavilion will be outfitted with 188 "eyes," each a 90 centimeter-diameter polycarbonate plastic semi-sphere. These crystalline luminous "eyes" will bulge out of the pavilion's otherwise dull metallic mass as if compelled to expand by an overwhelmingly strong internal force. Ambiguously, they will separate interior and exterior, while generously allowing into the space the sunshine that will contribute towards keeping the space warm during the cold days of fall and winter.
Adding the equipment necessary for the assemblage of an artificial climate-correcting machine, the Pavilion will also be outfitted with a variable climate control system including photovoltaic panels on the museum's nearby roof. These panels will power automatic exhaust fans, aluminum foil curtains and a phase-change radiant floor-heating system in order to stabilize and balance temperatures inside the space and preserve permanent spring weather-like conditions. A specially designed garden inside the Pavilion will be grown during the fall and winter months. Audio-visual displays will inform visitors in real time about climatic and environmental data on a global scale.
A DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
This project is a demonstration, a chance to focus public attention on issues of the city, climate change, our environment, and the future. In this unique experimental installation, we combine elements that will be used as a public platform for events, to further broadcast our message as both a work of architecture, a work of art + technology + engineering, a work of social impact. We have designed the Perpetual Spring Pavilion to be on display and in use in a public courtyard of one of the most-frequented and visible institutions in the city of Seoul. The placement positions the pavilion for widest reach and greatest impact of the message.
Founded on the idea that creating a true space of free public expression is already a radical way of questioning the ways in which the city is reproduced and expanded today, the Pavilion serves as a space of public use and activity gifted to the city of Seoul by the MMCA. Offering a place of comfort during days of severe weather, the Pavilion is a free open access venue for a variety of public uses including: public lectures, poetry readings, theater, music, dance performances, discussion groups of all kinds, book club sessions, etc. Special guests are also being invited to talk about issues related to the intersection between the emergency global climate crisis and the prospects for the unlikely rise of authentic democratic rule and universal justice.
