[Pavilion of Rational Mind]
How does one conceive a physical construct for the Florim tile products –a material representing only fragments of its final product, namely architecture – in a finite form? We go back to the quintessential Italian quality – the rational mind.
As in da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man or Palladio’s La Rotonda, the substance isn’t the human body or the villa itself, but the logic behind the inner workings of our limbs and the ideal proportion and formula behind the villa. It’s reducing the material into immaterial, and in the process acquires immortality, transcending generations with their thoughts contained within. The Florim pavilion attempts to continue this Italian tradition utilizing the essence from the works of our masters into a new understanding of culture, space, and visions.
The plan of the Florim Pavilion takes the Palladian villa plan as base, turning into an intricate ‘Vitruvian’ 3-D construct appropriate to contain human movements within. The result is a multiplicity of geometry, function, and tradition. Within this enclosure scattered the Florim products on display.
The existing Florim sliding display panels are utilized to enhance efficiency and helps to integrate the existing venue beyond the confine of the paviion. The panels can be curated to sit on different locations within and without the pavilion, providing hierarchical arrangements and circulations to suit different needs during the month of the pavilion’s existence. At the end of the exhibition, the pavilion can be disassembled and compacted into minimal stacks of white metal members and disappeared without a trace, leaving the panels and the venue going business as usual.
The pavilion touches the space lightly, but profoundly in terms of thoughts, tradition, and experience. And unmistakably Made in Italy.