bird view of the structure

all images © reMIX

Zoo pavilion in China designed by China-based design studio reMIX whose general layout  underscores some parametric design approaches solved in a different skin and envelope structure. The prooject is now under costruction in Chia for three years.

The Circus Pavilion for Dalian Zoo is the result of a collaboration between reMIX studio and Dalian UD Institute. The studio lines up their design decisions like that the geometric definition of the external and internal membrane, the optimization of the roof structure, the design of the access points, the modeling of the adjacent topography. 

interior circulation of the pavilion

map of phylogenesis

phylogenesis: zoom-in

The institute decided the location of the pavilion within the park and the general interior layout. The design studio was given a simple 3d model of the maximum envelope and were asked to propose an integral solution for the skin and the envelope structure. They sad that ''we believe in the possibility of combining a performative parametric approach and an intentional "handcrafted" design. Thus we explored a hybrid dialectics, in which the endless generative capacity of an algorithm, with its otherwise hardly achievable geometric precision, and the singularity of some punctual design moves, that can strongly influence the spatial quality and personal experience of the building, become a seamless dynamic assemblage.

phylogenesis: prototypes A & B

reMIX explains its approach like; ''we believe in the possibility of combining a performative parametric approach and an intentional "handcrafted" design. Thus we explored a hybrid dialectics, in which the endless generative capacity of an algorithm, with its otherwise hardly achievable geometric precision, and the singularity of some punctual design moves, that can strongly influence the spatial quality and personal experience of the building, become a seamless dynamic assemblage.''

phylogenesis: prototypes C & D

Through a process of phylogenesis*, design studio studied different geometrical systems: initial basic patterns were expanded three-dimensionally and tested in their structural performance. The physical possibilities of our intervention relied in the combination of an optimized and yet dynamic structure and the implicit material properties of the membrane. 
* Phylogenesis defines the analytical study of the properties of an element within a series, its substantial characteristics, its constant traits and anomalies: in sum, it defines the material performances and the physical morphological and behavioral limits of a certain population in an evolutionary logic.

general plan and elevations

general sections

Project Facts

Project: zoo pavilion 

Year: 2012-3 (under construction)

Type: structure-envelope 

Size: 5,000 sqm 

Location: Dalian, Liaoning, China

> via reMIX