FRAGILE PAVILION

Location: Metaverse
Size: ∞
Programmatic: virtual pavilion
Architects: SA lab
Research: Gonzo:research&art
Sound designer: Aleksander Vaniukov
Status: completed
Awards: Audience Choice Award
Press:
Metaverse Architecture Biennale, Decentraland, STIR, Medium
Year: 2023

SA lab and Gonzo:Research&Art have developed Fragile Pavilion for the The First Metaverse Architecture Biennale. The pavilion shows architecture in the digital age and represents a collection of sounds and memories that is essential to take with us from the past to make the future happen. Fragile Pavilion received the Audience Choice Award at the the The First Metaverse Architecture Biennale.

The First Metaverse Architecture Biennale will open simultaneously in Decentraland and W3rlds on September 21st. The biennale will be held under the theme "Presence of the future" and will bring together architectural firms from around the world, including SA lab, HWKN, Killa Design, LAVA, PLP, Soomeen Hahm, Spaces DAO, ATRIUM, DA!, Il Prisma, iheartblob, Mariana Cabugueira Studios, Illusorr, and others. SA lab and Gonzo:Research&Art have developed the Fragile Pavilion.
Fragile Pavilion is a repository of sounds, memories, and knowledge that is essential to take with us from the past to make the future happen. These are bright moments that bring goosebumps or painful experiences that push us forward and prevent history from repeating itself. The past is gone, and we can't change it, but by facing it, we can hold on to valuable things. On this journey, there is something we can do about the future. The pavilion is a data-driven space co-created by people from six countries and AI. We encourage visitors to walk across the pavilion and investigate interactive elements. One part of the pavilion is left empty to fill it together during the biennale.

The pavilion's design is focused on exploring the limits of architecture in the digital realm. It eliminates all bulky structures to highlight the narratives of both humans and AI. The image of the pavilion is influenced by the delicate beauty of nature, such as withered flowers, slender tree branches, and the delicate structure of butterfly wings. This creates a sense of a fragile future.
The soundtrack is based on the concepts of generative music, in which each sound arrives in a random sequence and lasts for a variable amount of time, resulting in unexpected combinations that manifest and evade existence, much like a conceptual analogue to memory in and beyond time. The sounds are responses to the question, "Which sound should remain if all other sounds in the world vanished?" 

So, what do we need to take with us into the future we want to live in?