Pavilion for All

Clitterhouse Playing Fields, Brent Cross

Studio MULTI has imagined the Pavilion for All on a picnic blanket; an everyday object that brings together families and friends to eat together outdoors. In the heart of Clitterhouse playing fields, this picnic blanket translates as a square floor surface on which sit the changing and café blocks, unified by a square roof structure. Internal and external spaces are provided below the roof, to provide shelter from the elements. The pavilion is centrally located on the brow of the hill, along the main route through the park and visible as a simple but strong form from each entrance. This is both a place for sport, as well as impromptu refreshment, social gatherings, and children’s parties.

Charles and Ray Eames’ film ‘Powers of Ten’ starts with a view of a picnic, then zooms out by a factor of ten into the universe before reversing, ending up at a microscopic, cellular level within the human body. Studio MULTI has designed the Pavilion for All to be experienced at multiple scales, collaborating with structural engineers Whitby Wood to consider the detail and interfaces between materials as well as their embodied energy.

The floor to the pavilion is proposed as a permeable rubber product made from recycled trainers, the supporting walls are rammed earth, providing weight and stability to a single storey structure that is in a location exposed on all sides to the elements. The depth of these walls provides opportunity for window seating, as well as substantial thermal mass. The roof is constructed in structural timber beams visible from below and propped with reclaimed steel columns at the corners. The roof itself supports intensive, self-sustaining planting, providing a biodiverse oasis for wildlife.