This Pavilion design is the result of research into grid-stiffened shells. Grid-stiffened shells (a.k.a. gridshells), prevalent in 1950s-60s engineering masterworks by Nervi, Otto, and Candela, were part of a lineage of experimentation into material intelligence and analogue shape computation leading all the way back to the Gothic era. These structures were characterized by form-found curvature and uniform patterns of relief. These solutions were however often limited by their tendency toward minima and rational expression of material limits. The gridshell is newly relevant today, re-invented through non-uniform patterns of relief and non-indexical materiality. This design is based on the simultaneous response of pattern to surface curvature and force pathways, generating a highly varied, non-linear structuration. Variability in pattern morphology, density, and depth allow for a localized structural tuning which would be impossible with invariant pattern logic. Limitations of traditional form-finding, where structures tend toward funicular forms, are lifted, and more complex, unbalanced surface shapes begin to be possible. The result is ‘beam-shell’ logic, or a hybrid of shell behavior and beam behavior, where buildup of forces in shells can be relieved through the introduction of vector elements.

Massive scale shift between neighboring cells in the surface pattern is critical to the design. Competing forces of curvature and stiffness reinforce this heterogeneity, which is consciously distant from linear parametric gradients.