london school of architecture's timber pavilion combines community, education, and design

dalston pavilion: an open-air exhibition space and classroom

As part of the London Festival of Architecture, the city’s newest architecture school celebrates 10 years with the Dalston Pavilion to platform local outreach. Designed by the London School of Architecture with Arup, the structure is constructed from a series of A-Frames and openable in-fill panels. Its triangular timber form is inspired by the traditional ‘cabinet of curiosities’ used to exhibit artefacts from around the world, while echoing the timber roof structure of the neighbouring Holy Trinity Church.

The Dalston Pavilion provides a venue and focal point for a public programme that seeks to build long-term relationships between the local community and the school. Seeing the surrounding city as its extended campus and this project as a physical distillation of that ideal, it presents an outdoor exhibition space, dining room, and classroom, aimed at local young people aged between 11 and 25 years old.

image © Rikard Svalastoga Kahn

london school of architecture poses community participation

With community in mind, to construct the pavilion the London School of Architecture has worked with local makers, including skilled residents of the adjoining estate. Workshops and access to the pavilion will be enabled through close partnerships with a local artist and resident of Rhodes Estate alongside the Forest Road Youth Hub, the largest youth centre in Hackney. Planters meanwhile were created by landscape architects and ecologists working with teenagers.

The Dalston Pavilion is a prototype of the school’s new in-house project delivery office, CITIZEN, which focuses on working with makers, community groups, and local organisations. CITIZEN has designed and built the Pavilion with Arup and the New School of Furniture Making (also based in LSA’s building), with contributions from Studio Superfluo, Or This, OllyStudio, Orsman Construction and local residents, and generous donations from the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation, the Marchus Trust, E Roberts Timber, UPM WISA Plywood and James Latham.

image © Rikard Svalastoga Kahn

Neal Shasore, Head of School and Chief Executive, notes: ‘The London School of Architecture has been based in Hackney for half its life, and intends to stay in the borough, collaborating with communities and investing in underserved and underrepresented young people who want to learn more about the built environment. The Dalston Pavilion is a beacon of our ‘Part 0’ campaign, which has thus far delivered three access and outreach programs and helped us to build relationships with more than a dozen local schools. This year, the young people who participated in our programmes sought to reimagine the car park site adjacent to the school through design, craft, and ecology. The pavilion tells their stories and showcases their work for the wider neighbourhood to see and discuss.’

image © Rikard Svalastoga Kahn

image © Rikard Svalastoga Kahn

image © Rikard Svalastoga Kahn

image © London School of Architecture

image © London School of Architecture

project info:

name: The Dalston Pavilion
architect: The London School of Architecture, Arup

program collaborators: Rio Cinema, Forest Road Youth Hub, RIBA Youth Forum, Open City, Drawing Matter, HomeGrown Plus, Architecture Foundation Young Trustees, East and more

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: ravail khan | designboom