TANGIBLE INTANGIBLE

Arquine’s MEXTROPOLI Pavilion Competition - Honorable Mention

At their core, cities begin and end with the sharing of tangible and intangible resources. The pavilion uses the most basic of tangible city resources, infrastructure, to examine the intangible resource of time.

The pavilion is composed of eight reinforced pre-fabricated concrete pipes (RPCP), an often-invisible vital piece of city infrastructure, forming a 19.2m long tubular structure. Each RPCP is divided into 20-minute increments or nine painted interior stripes culminating in a gradient of 32 different shades symbolizing natural light tones during a day, beginning with midday and ending with the subsequent midday. Two of the eight RPCPs contain a manhole and climbable ladder symbolizing sunset and sunrise while also providing ambient light to the pavilion. The pavilion is placed on the first diagonal of the southwest corner of the Alameda Central, oriented east-west in line with the sun’s trajectory and can be secured by blocking its entrances with plywood panels.

The circadian rhythm of the city informs an individual inhabitant’s definition of where their city ends by when it ends daily. A tangible representation of 24-hours invites the visitor to explore when and how they, and others, engage in the shared resource of time at different points—when their city ends, someone else’s begins, creating an intangible loop implicit in the tubular shape of the pavilion.

Simply put, the pavilion reverts to its normal utility following the festival, acting as concrete infrastructure used to expand or improve the ability for liquids, both vital and harmful, to be shared within the city.