antonio scarponi's jungfrau pavilion in switzerland references the mountain panorama

designed for the bernese community of steffisburg to host different open-air cultural events of the triennial festival ‘art-container’, antonio scarponi’s pavilion is conceived as an architectonic contribution to the long iconographic tradition of the jungfrau series initiated by paul klee, arnold böcklin, and ferdinand hodler and carried until today by many other artists. characteristically for this kind of works, the object’s shape is inspired by the mountain panorama. 

with its 250 square meters of covered surface and its 9 meters height, the ‘jungfrau pavilion’ has reached an architectural scale, developed in collaboration with the local authorities who carried the project to completion, from fundraising to technical engineering. designed as a theatrical device, scarponi’s structure presents itself as a lay cathedral surrounded by rapeseed fields to host daily liturgies such as concerts, speeches, gastronomic degustations and open leisure activities that celebrate the sublimeness of the alpine bernese landscape and territory.

the pavilion features ad-hoc furniture realized with concrete casting boards to match the surrounding yellow rapeseed flower fields. the wooden roof structure consists of an ‘open truss’ system that allows the suspension of a rooftop membrane that inverts the load forces and optimizes the natural structure resistance performance of the wood construction. the pavilion is designed as a temporary structure that can be efficiently rebuilt in different contexts and host various cultural open-air events.

project info:

project initiator: art container steffisburg / gemeinde steffisburg

design: antonio scarponi / conceptual devices

events and artistic direction: ines meyer döring, corinne vogel

planning: bauholz wenger GmbH

realization: GLB ag

textiles: hofstetter zelt & event ag

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: maria erman | designboom