An ephemeral museum located in the Square across from the Reina Sofia National Museum, totally prefabricated in plastic, assembled on site in just 2 days, and 10 days after its inauguration disassembled and 100% recycled.
Conceived as the center of the campaign to explain the importance of the correct use of plastic, it had to be entirely built out of recyclable plastic.
Taking advantage of this, we highlighted the unique qualities plastic has. The design tries to avoid the common appearance of a temporary installation, and chooses a more “serious” approach, the plastics used were chosen based on their capacity to be recyclable, their structural performance, and transparency.
The plastic Museum is a simple volume, white and translucent, easily legible but broken by the methacrylate ribs that reflect and transmit light in its interior, letting us imagine the inside world and inviting the pedestrian in.
Using plastic as the only material for the structure the rules of the game change, allowing the pavilion to have an “invisible” structural system. The museum is a big puzzle consisted in 7 structural ribs made of 20mm transparent methacrylate “U” shape beams and pillars.
For the facade, the chosen material was white polyethylene, mechanized to be tongue-and-groove so it works as a whole with the rib structure. It is a dense material that allows the facade to be self-supporting, while changing its appearance through the day, and working as a lantern at night. The roof is built with white cellular polycarbonate due to its lightness and thermal insulation.
Every piece was cut and numbered by numeric control so it could be assembled on site in just 2 days and then dismantled to be recycled in 1 day.