A new pavilion, covered in galvanized steel plates, is constructed on a sloping lawn on the temporary Dover Campus of Singapore University of Technology and Design. Designed by City Form Lab in collaboration with ARUP, the shell pavilion is accommodating three mature trees and forming a buffer, a noise barrier toward the Expressway in the north. The outdoor space behind the existing library building is therefore activated. In daytime, the structure of the pavilion offers shaded open-air place to work, mingle or relax. During the night, the place becomes the spot for informal gatherings, event lectures and community events.

The free-shaped temporary structure is a third space, between the classrooms and the dormitory, and the main place for spontaneous intellectual and social exchange. Due to its design and chosen structural principle – a catenary structure, the pavilion uses little material in order to achieve necessary spans while the canopy forms a lightweight timber shell, free of columns, beams and vertical walls. The double curvature of the form, which follows the lines of the compressed thrust, is enabled by hanging-chain model.

In order to execute the pavilion in precise manner, the computational design and computer fabrication was used – complex three-dimensional form is achieved with readily available materials and the cost is reduced to minimal.

The complex three-dimensional structural joints were avoided – the designers chosen prefabricated flat plywood and galvanized steel sheets, cut by CNC machines locally. Three thousand unique plywood and six hundred sheet-metal tiles were used to construct this smooth piece of temporary structure, based on only one drawing – the numeric map of the three-dimensional puzzle, which precisely indicated the exact place of every piece. The pavilion is designed to be dismantled and recycled after two years.