Architect: Manuel Gross, Patrik Staub, Stefan Vetsch, Yannick Vorberg, Switzerland    
Location: Toronto, Canada    

On July 2015, the Pan American Games will take place in Toronto. For two weeks, the Pan American Village will serve as a central hub of sports, celebration and international friendship. The Awards Ceremony Pavilion will literally and figuratively be the stage by which the world views the success of the athletes and the host country. This semi-permanent structure will function as a multi-purpose platform during the Games and must remain flexible for future post-Games uses, such as an outdoor theatre, a musical performance stage and social gathering spot.

The huge roof of the pavilion creates an interesting and protecting place, where people can meet, relax or entertain themselves. The forest spreads over the site and leads people to the water. Under the roof there are some boxes, which contain the different utilities like public restrooms, ticketing and the stage with the back stage area and storage rooms.

As a material concept, the Swiss architects Manuel Gross, Patrik Staub, Stefan Vetsch and  Yannick Vorberg, tried to use PVC not just as a cladding material. They developed a simple structure in which vinyl works as a supporting element in the form of standard weather balloons. This structure only works with the use of vinyl and that was exactly their goal. The form follows the function and the form became very plurivalent. People may recognize the pavilion as a forest, others may see lots of ephemeral clouds in the sky. This equivocation makes the pavilion interesting and special.
The facade and the roof of the boxes consist of recycled PVC pipes. The pipes have different functions and are more than just a cladding. Standard, vinyl based and helium filled weather balloons support a PVC-PES membrane and a PVC net holds everything together. Wire ropes with a PVC coating anchor the construction to the ground. The boxes under the roof consist of a simple steel substructure and recycled PVC pipes clad and stiffen this steel frame at the exterior. The pipes also work as a sunblind and a rain drain. A vinyl insulation with an interior PVC cladding completes the construction.

Technical info:
Recycled PVC pipes, PVC-PES membrane

Picture credits:
Gross, Staub, Vetsch, Vorberg