mirrormirror tents by davidson rafailidis

‘mirror mirror tents’ by davidson rafailidis, new york city, new york
image © georg rafailidis
all images courtesy of davidson rafailidis

‘mirror mirror tents’ by davidson rafailidis are extremely lightweight, portable street fest / event structures with a double-sided mirrored canopy,
installed in bowery for the 2013 ideas city festival. the simple, gabled roof, angled at 45 degrees, reflects urban activity on the ground in multiple
ways and offers a radically new and intensified view of street life. the exterior of the mirrored roof reflects higher parts of the city skyline and the sky.
these patches of sky offer glimpses of lightness and airiness into the dense urban ground plane.

the roof is made using reinforced aluminum framed panels with stretched, reflective mylar foil. the structural system consists of 2 angles:
the mirrored gabled roof and a steel frame tripod. both structures are hinged to be able to be completely flat packed for transport and storage.
the entire assembly of tents installed for the recent ideas city street fest covered 1000 ft2. packed-up, it barely fills half a u-haul truck.
the on-site assembly of the tents is extremely fast. first, all steel frames unfold to form tripods. then, all mirrored panels unhinge and slide
onto the steel frames to form a rigid structural system. standard concrete blocks provide the necessary weight to resist uplift by winds.
the only tool needed is a 1/2 inch wrench to secure the roof panel onto the steel frame

tents in front of the new museum
image © benoit pailley

tent installation viewed from the new museum
image © james rice

mirrormirror allows for radically different configurations in scale, use and spatial experience. it can be used as a single unit but also combined
to larger structures to form linear or field like typologies. for the ideas city application davidson rafailidis chose a linear configuration in
front of the new museum building by kazuyo sejima + ryue nishizawa / sanaa. the house-like section forms a dialogue with the abstract
cubic structure of the museum building.

image © alex marchuk

tents
image © benoit pailley

ground activity reflected in the underside of the mirrored roof
image © georg rafailidis

tents installed in the sara d. roosevelt park
image © georg rafailidis

image © benoit pailley

floor plan, single unit

section, single unit

axonometric, two units

project info:

structure: fabricated in buffalo, ny, at the essex art center and assembled on site.
practice: davidson rafailidis, buffalo, new york
project team: georg rafailidis (lead), stephanie davidson
project staff: jia ma, aleksandr marchuk
fabrication and assembly: spielman fabrication llc, jon spielman, tyler griffis
structural engineer design phase: matthias michel, imagine structure, frankfurt, germany
structural engineer realization: peter grace, state university of new york at buffalo
fabrication support by students of the university at buffalo: zakaria boucetta, john costello, james rice, matthew rosen, fan yang
mirror panels: litemirror—shatterproof glassless mirrors, lighter and brighter than plate glass, litemirror.com, irvington, new york