Wicker Work
A pavilion by Toyo Ito in Bruges, Belgium
An ever more important issue in current architecture has become baiting daylight with the more manifest materials of which buildings normally are constructed. Internationally Kengo Kuma along with his Japanese colleagues has been praised for their effort within this field. In Europe so far a brilliant example of the future potentials in blending a translucent structure with transparent materials as well as metal plates in decorative patterns is a minor pavilion built in the Belgium city of Bruges. For the occasion of being cultural city of Europe in 2002 and well ahead of mainstream architecture the city invited famous Toyo Ito to design this pavilion.
Nearly as impressive as the architectural outcome of this invitation is the site in central Bruges where the former, now removed, St. Donat Cathedral resided 200 years ago, just opposite the Gothic city hall along the Burg Square. Currently the number of inhabitants of Bruges is just around 116.500 while the physical remnants of its former glory in the Middle Ages are present everywhere as a cityscape of preserved buildings never disturbed by wars. In fact the prosperous time for Bruges had an end when growing sand banks in the adjacent river prevented the merchants’ ship to reach it anymore.
In order to be in proper context with the architectural heritage and the historic setting Toyo Ito has chosen an innovative wickerwork structure for his new pavilion while still making use of modern building materials. Factually he suggested a covered bridge in an artificial pond providing architectural space within a reflecting façade owing some transparent qualities of a screen grid. 
Ever since his Silver House (1984), a ventilation tower in Yokohama (1986) and most recently a pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Garden of London (2002) and the Sendai Library Toyo Ito (born 1941) has been recognized as a leading architect of seemingly weightless structures. Or at least these buildings appear lightly as the traditional Japanese paper screens. In the somewhat park like site on Burg Square surrounded by large trees the setting for his pavilion might seem somewhat odd for an overcrowded city core. Never the less by introducing a circular pond of low water depth covered with white rubbles on its bottom Ito has succeeded in enhancing some poetic or even metaphysic values of the urban place.
And by providing a pedestrian tunnel bridge across the pond he is adding an architectural volume parallel to the town hall thereby restoring the original form of the Burg square although re-establishing it in a brittle almost feminine way. In fact the facades of the pavilion are providing visual walls from several angles where the outer transparent membrane are mainly resulting in reflections while the hexagonal wickerwork within the walls and ceiling are having more visual impact from other points of view. The transparency and decorative performance of the skin of the pavilion seems relating to the traditional laces of Bruges. And the lightness of the pavilion is even experienced through your feet since the floor is floating the water on hidden polycarbonate mats sinking a bit for every step you take - and certainly enough to loose ever sense of solidity or firmness.
The office of Ito made a series of experiments of paper and aluminium models at various scales for the purpose of simulating and testing the stability of the structure. In the final design phase a 1:2 aluminium model was made while a full scale model of the roof panels were made at a factory in Belgium. Based on the result of these experiments the sizes of members were changed. In the final construction the roof and sides of the building consist of an aluminium honeycomb structure of 125 millimetres. This grid has easily been bolted together where walls are meeting the roof, but to obtain a more stable building oval clouds of 3 millimetre aluminium plates have been welded on the grid like a sandwich structure. A single ‘cloud’ is measuring about 75 by 150 centimetres and spread out all over the structure in a decorative way, even in the transition between wall and roof. In the end the structure is covered on its outside by polycarbonate plates of 12 millimetres even upward making protection against rain sideways mostly functioning as mirrors.
By having acquired this pavilion Bruges got its own blue flower of poetry as a gesture of belief in the future while reminding itself of its heritage by also recreating a wooden crane from the middle Ages. Evidently both structures are very small but also properly chosen objects making perspectives for a European city of culture.
Flemming Skude
FACTS:Client: City of Bruges, Belgium
Architect: Toyo Ito & Associates
Construction firm: Aelbrecht Maes
Designed in 2000 and built 2002
