Studio Mumbai founder Bijoy Jain has unveiled his completed MPavilionin Melbourne – a square structure built from bamboo and wood, but not the cow dung originally planned (+ slideshow).
The Indian architect used seven kilometres of bamboo, 50 tonnes of stone and 26 kilometres of rope to create this year’s MPavilion, an annual commission billed as Australia’s answer to London’s Serpentine Pavilion.
Jain had also planned to use karvi panels, which are made by mixing cow dung and earth. But this material – in use in India, and tested on several prototypes built in Mumbai – would have taken too long to dry in the Melbourne climate.
The completed 16.8-square-metre structure features an intricate bamboo framework pinned together with approximately 5,000 wooden pegs.
Its awning-style roof canopy is made from Karvi sticks, which extend down at the corners to create dramatic points, while the flooring is bluestone, sourced from a quarry in Port Fairy – about 300 kilometres west of Melbourne.
Source: www.dezeen.com