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Gillot+Givry: pavillon d’été

In praise of smallness, the summer pavilion designed by Gillot+Givry in France is a crisis-era architecture, self-built with the most commonplace materials and means.

Following on from microarchitecture research inspired by the typology of the Japanese tea ceremony room, this experiment is based on the fabrique de jardin folly model which embodied the poetic and philosophical vocation of the built environment in the Age of Enlightenment.

This smaller scale claims a certain qualitative density and a real efficiency of the systems implemented.

Gillot – Givry, Un pavillion d'été, Saint Baudille et Pipet, France — Gillot+Givry, Un pavillion d'été, Saint Baudille et Pipet, France

In the era of sustainable development, the question of function must be addressed and a criticism of a certain widespread over-activity must be envisaged. While the main purpose of architectural space is to embody human activities, which are often summed up as production, entertainment and primary needs, the summer folly is an invitation to dreams, rest and idleness.

By way of possible solutions to environmental, economic and energy issues, it proposes the functions of “sitting down” and “thinking” as its main project. Drawing a parallel with Slow Food in contrast to the principle of Junk Food, it offers a Slow Space, as a potential opposing concept to Junkspace.

Through its ephemeral and immaterial aspects, its construction is akin to a transience of ideas, a lightness of the mind. As such, it has a certain unreal dimension. It is a mirage, a fleeting and abstract space that explores the temporal potential of architecture in its material and virtual dimensions. While it is inevitably destined to disappear after a period, the immaterial idea behind it gives it a perennial aspect.