transformer - information kiosk
international open architecture competition

A project that has to be built for a few weeks and then to be dismantled induces something easy to gather and to recycle. How to create an architecture that attracts people, that communicates about architecture, without the use of any special effects? An architecture that creates the event, without a special architectural expression or language? Something that is universal and talks to everyone? A way to transmit architecture is to show it differently.

The limited surface of the programme and the need of a temporary building lead to a compact object with standard dimensions (20 M long x 5 M wide x 4 M high). The use of bright stainless steel drives the visitors to an unusual perception as it alterates the view they have on the Piazza Castello. At first sight one doesn't know if the kiosk is part of the landscape or not. The stainless steel reflects but also distorts the reality; it acts as the chameleon as one understands its presence just after a while. This construction is questionning our relation to architecture in its environment and mostly to new buildings in historical contexts.

The project evokes the landscape transformation as well as it transforms itself; offering a very different perception when it is opened from when it is closed, the kiosk appears like a magic box. All the pannels parts of the enveloppe can move by rotation or translation. Those movements show the capacity of a box to be turned into a different object. From something rather closed and compact to something opened and expanded, the info-point seeks a dialogue with its environment, different whether it is in activity or not.

place turin, italy
programme a temporary information kiosk transmitting architecture
year march 2008
client u.i.a.
architect david tajchman
area 100 m2