Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Blue Pavilion . London

Pezo von Ellrichshausen . Photos: © Helene Binet . © James Harris . © Pezo von Ellrichshausen . + architizer

As an attempt to capture both the conceptual and the physical weight of the gallery's aerial world, the pavilion is an elevated small room supported by four massive columns. The room is a square and the columns are circular in plan.

Slightly contained by low walls, this intimate room is open to the golden decorated ceiling of the gallery. Somehow hidden from the ground, this aerial world recovers a sense of connection with the natural light of the exterior. The four hollowed columns have a structural function and contain spiral staircases that give direct access to the upper platform. There is another access in the format of a contained promenade: a compact ramp that expands the perception of time and distance from one level to the other. As a whole, the piece can be understood as an enigmatic device that invites visitors to abandon the normal stratum of the exhibition space to inhabit its vertical dimension. This structure establishes at least three moments: the collective and open experience under the platform and in-between the massive cylindrical columns; the individual and sensual experience of climbing up or descending using the tight ramp or the spiral staircases; and the surprising collective and familiar experience of being on the platform, almost touching the decorated vaults, the golden angels, the steel beams and the glass skylights of the traditional building. The whole pavilion is made out of pinewood, with a soft and light grain. The same four carpenters who prefabricated the pieces back in Chile assembled them in the gallery. Perhaps this schematic but hand crafted construction increases the polarized perception of intimacy and monumentality.