wave pavilion

the ‘wave pavilion’ by macdowell.tomova acts as both a pragmatic and conceptual testing ground, leveraging scripting and advanced digital fabrication toward the expansion of disciplinary modes of design and construction.

the pavilion operates as a piece of landscape furniture, an occupiable space of gathering and leisure.
set on the grounds of the university of michigan, taubman college of architecture and urban planning,
the wave pavilion serves both a functional role as a place for student discussion groups or private
reflection and a didactic one within the dialogue of digital fabrication.

the line is made real in the form of slender steel rod. gradients of pattern read across the breadth of the pavilion, but moments of eccentricity i.e. phase shifts, highlight the composite relational processes of the underlying system.

the project relies on the precise fabrication and assembly of its constituent elements. to this end, the architects designed and built a CNC rod-bending device that operates in tandem with a multi-use 7-axis robotic arm to shape the pavilion components.