Located one hour northeast of New York City on a large residential estate, the Meadow Pavilion is the concluding structure to a much larger master plan that features numerous out-buildings, gardens, and meadows linked by a series of paths and lawns back to a main house. Functioning as a garden, guesthouse and event/dining space, the Pavilion is sited at the most southern end of the property’s meadows, capitalizing on views to the distant rolling hills of the Hudson Valley to the north. Given its site and function, the Pavilion seeks to become non-architecture, a participant rather than an object in its field, and tests a variety of scenarios that seek to breakdown the traditional boundaries between landscape and architecture. Similar to its natural surrounding, the “building” acts performatively, using digital technology to interact with sound, and light over time, creating an expanded atmosphere of sensory effects, that blends natural and theatrical phenomena.
“Cloudspace” is the pavilion’s interstitial zone, which allows for the superimposition of program, architectural elements and natural phenomena. The cloud (roof) is transformative, non-static and visually provocative against the undulating ground plane. The Meadow Pavilion is accessed by foot, via a processional walkway from the main house. The natural grading of the meadow was maintained, thus the axial path along a topographic contour line divides the lower meadow from an upper knoll. In between, a series of hedges and planting bands grow out of the sloping topography to define the footpath. Incorporating digital sensors throughout the terrain, the “Cloudspace” responds to data from the field at large, and interacts with the inhabitants of the pavilion and the meadow.
The pavilion project approaches landscape as “performance” rather than “appearance,” seeking an architecture that acts like nature as opposed to looking like nature. Taking landscape as an open set of bio-technological and bio-social systems, we’re testing different scenarios of interactive, responsive, and self-generative environmental feedback loops in order to promote an active dialogue between participant and the environment.