For us humans, our cities are not so much geometrically arranged piles of building blocks as a cluster of urban places full of memories and experiences.

Space Lab and its symbolic architecture start from this perception, and set out to be an identity-building implant in the web of non-places. The idea was to take a totally anonymous place and endow it with a new experiential quality. In the middle of a mass of anonymous built-up area, a new place is woven into the urban web.

This experimental basic idea was developed using computer modelling for a real place into a multifunctional introverted space with potential for various kinds of use. This pavilion is then integrated into the existing building structures so as to occupy the whole area of an inner courtyard. There is direct access from the public streets via a walkway to the pavilion lowered into the courtyard. The pavilion is planned as a prefabricated unit which is simply hoisted into place in the yard. Functional requirements such as lighting and ventilation determine the form of the shell, which tucks neatly into the pre-existing situation. Light and air come in through gill-like skylights set into the roof structure of the introverted exhibition room. The shell exterior is finished as a reflecting metal façade which mirrors its surroundings.