Termite Pavilion Star Attraction At "Pestival"

[Martin Coleman]

London, England

Ternite Pavillion Centre-piece
The Termite Pavilion is a six square metre walk-in structure inspired by the inside of a Namibian termite mound, and will allow Pestival goers a unique insight into these extraordinary organic forms.
The piece is in part based on the pioneering work of Dr Rupert Soar and the TERMES project, a team of international experts based in Namibia who have created the first ever 3D scans of termite mounds. Their findings have been a embraced by entomologists and architects alike, and have featured in Sir David Attenborough’s ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ series.

For the Termite Pavilion, a team of architects and engineers selected a central section a termite mound scan and scaled it up to a size which would allow humans to move through it. The structure will arrive in kit form, to be put together on site. It is made of cross laminated timber, sourced from Austrain spruce, for reasons of sutainability, durability and cost.

Original scanned data has been abstracted and scaled up to give a direct insight into the extraordinary architectural and engineering skills of one of Earth’s oldest master builders. Discover how leading experts are learning from the termites for the sake of our collective future. This is an art and science collaboration between local Softroom Architects, Freeform Engineering, Atelier One, Chris Watson, KLH UK, Haberdasherylondon and Pestival.

the developers selected a central section of a termite mound scan and scaled it up to a size which would allow humans to move through it. The structure arrived in kit form and was put together on site. It is made of cross laminated timber, sourced from Austrian spruce, for reasons of sustainability, durability and cost.

The Termite Pavilion is an art and science collaboration between Softroom Architects, Freeform Engineering, Atelier One, Chris Watson, Haberdasherylondon, KLH and Pestival.
http://pestival.org/news/the-termite-pavilion/