FORM FOLLOWS SHADE

Shade-finding process generates optimized form for pavilion that increases attractiveness and viability for Miami’s unused urban park space

After the 2008 economic recession, Miami’s 25-acre Museum Park budget was cut from $46,000,000 to $9,500,000, resulting in a fraction of the initial design’s intended shade coverage. Adjacent to downtown Miami and cultural institutions such as the Perez Art Museum, Frost Museum of Science, and American Airlines Arena, the urban park still has a chance to become a dynamic public space in South Florida. The views from the park to Biscayne Bay and Miami’s skyline are mesmerizing, but shade still remains the principal issue keeping visitors away. In order to increase the park’s attractiveness and viability, a low-maintenance non-intrusive pavilion that cohesively blends with existing landscaping is proposed.

The pavilion consists of a field of fabric banners suspended from a 20’ x 20’ cable network connected to four posts.  With the aim of achieving the structure’s highest possible cumulative shaded area in a day’s time, a shade-finding process, led by an evolutionary script, evaluated every possible connection point of the cables on each post as well as the orientation of the entire structure. After fifty-two evolutionary genomes or iterations, the largest shaded area achieved was 2,620 square feet at a 22 degree clockwise rotation with respect to North.

The shade finding process generated a form with a dimensionally diverse set of vertical and horizontal shaded spaces that are partially private to completely open. The fabric color selection was calibrated to the amount of shaded area produced by each banner; the darker the banner, the more shade it contributes to the system.

Just at 400 square feet, the pavilion packs a lot of punch, providing over 2,600 square feet of shaded area throughout the day for users whether they choose to enjoy pavilion’s most private, intimate, or completely open shaded spaces.