Architects Pezo Von Ellrichshausen and instructor Richard Nelson
With Lisa Palm, Jenna Staff & Lova Strindberg
For the 2015 Chicago Biennial, a select team of architects were chosen to work with architecture schools on a pavilion for the city lakefront.
As part of the Illinois Institute of Technology student team lead by Richard Nelson, we worked on the pavilion designed by architects Pezo Von Ellrichshausen during a summer course offered at the College of Architecture.
We worked based on the design from the architects, and throughout the summer developed the necessary construction documents and revised certain aspects of the pavilion’s architecture in close collaboration with the architects in order for it to be built on the lakefront of the city of Chicago for the Biennial.
The process included the construction of several study models as well as full sized joint mock-ups in order to better understand how the pavilion was to be built and assembled. Several options were considered and tested for the three main components of the pavilion; the wood-structure, the cladding and the glazing. From the wood species to be used to the development of a window frame that is light, easily produced and assembled without the use of any external parts and simply clipped into place, while still being waterproof. We also played bocce.
The wood structure was erected in front of Crown Hall for the opening of the biennial in october 2015, and the pavilion is to be built on the lakefront during the spring of 2016.