2020 - 2023
Adelaide Festival, with Artistic Directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachel Healy, commissioned CO-AP to design the new Adelaide Festival Club - a temporary pavilion for events during the 2021, 2022 and 2023 festivals - situated in Kaurna Country along the banks of Karrawirra Pari (Torrens River).
Drawing design cues from the nearby Elder Park Rotunda, a distinct circular form has been adopted to house the beating heart of Adelaide Festival. It is to provide a space for new and exciting acts both nationally and internationally, becoming a meeting ground for audiences of all generations and backgrounds to watch and listen, to perform, to eat and drink, and to share memories over the festival period.
As dusk settles in, the pavilion comes alive. A combination of surface and projected lighting will enable the mood and theme to be changed throughout the festival period and from year to year. The tessellated facade becomes a canvas for dynamic and ephemeral superimposition.
With the history of the River Torrens facing moments of destruction during early colonisation - and then being rebuilt and revitalised into the picturesque landscape that exists today - we found it imperative the new Adelaide Festival Club should have minimal impact on the existing natural landscape as well as a small carbon footprint.
Structurally, the proposed pavilion adopts a kit-of-parts consisting of scaffolding and a modular fabric facade. This allows the building elements to be reassembled annually for the 17 day festival.
Photographs 1 - 3 by Ross Honeysett
Photographs 4 & 5 by CO-AP
Concept model and model photos by Make Models
