Fold it! pavilion

This project draws conceptual and formal inspiration from the sculptural works of Jorge Oteiza, whose exploration of voids, spatial tension, and material subtraction became the foundation for our design process. Rather than mimicking his forms, we sought to work from what we understood as the gene of his practice—an underlying logic of space-making that values absence as much as presence.

The process began with a close study of Oteiza’s artworks, analyzing how he carved space through geometry, and how his sculptures create a dialogue between interior void and surrounding form. These observations guided our early spatial experiments, where we translated his sculptural logic into architectural gestures.

With the aim of designing a pavilion for CAAI School of Architecture (Iran), the project also responded to specific functional needs: to serve as a platform for exhibiting student work, including physical models. This introduced a performative layer to the space—it had to not only frame work, but also host interaction between viewer, model, and environment.

Through iterative modeling and spatial testing, we arrived at a form that actively shaped the experience of observation. Openings, thresholds, and varying heights were strategically composed to create moments of intimacy, movement, and visual layering. The result is a pavilion that is both an architectural homage to Oteiza’s spatial sensibility and a responsive structure tailored for engagement, display, and discovery.