Atelier Tree designed a temporary pavilion for the fashion brand TF.33 in a clothing exhibition in Beijing, 2018. Traditional eastern courtyard space is epitomized into an installation, presented in National Agricultural Exhibition Center.

Time for construction and building is restricted within 16 hours. Atelier Tree used finished industrial products as structure as well as decoration surface to present a genuine space and to keep the budget low. All materials used to build the pavilion, including hollow concrete blocks, flexible aluminum foil ducts, polycarbonate panels, and square steel tubes, can be recycled and re-used after the 3-day exhibition.

The exhibition site has a height limit of 4.5 meters. Atelier Tree lowered the courtyard fence to 2.0 meters, which enabled lights reflected by the metal-woven roof to shine over the fence. Surrounded by exhibition stands built to the height limit, the pavilion managed to attract views and crowds as an energy basin.

The rectangle exhibition site was enclosed by pathways from four directions. Two entrances/exits were set diagonally on the north and the south path. The two courtyards and the pitched roof sectioned the site into three parallel internal and external space, leading to an S-shaped tour line throughout the courtyard, the main clothing exhibition area, and the business negotiation area.

Outside the pavilion, square steel tubes were used as frames which served both structure and display functions. The fence was built with ivory translucent polycarbonate panels, thin but unable to be traversed. The slight swing of the clothes and the hazy shadow of visitors left a lively monochrome image on polycarbonate panels, turning the fence into a constantly changing dumb-show screen.

Visitors passed through the entrance and walked into the courtyard, crossing the straightforward installation space and exploring clothes exhibited under the roof and in the courtyard.

The eave of the woven rooftop was lowered to emphasize the courtyard, creating a calm cave that unfolded horizontally for visitors to rest their eyes while sitting down. Concrete masonry blocks as a landscape installation formed a threshold between the interior and the courtyard, rendering a scenery shared by visitors in both spaces.

The pitched roof, as a classic eastern architectural element, was covered by woven flexible aluminum foil ducts with diameter of 300mm. Despite of the heavy volume presented by the ducts, the aluminum foil material weighs extremely light. The structure of the ducts and gaps between them enabled air to circulate and to flow, lights to pass through, and visitors’ eyes to move around. The roof became a breathing organ that integrated the installation and the environment.

The making of woven roof and the geometric cut of polycarbonate panels associated the construction activity with the making of textiles and clothing. The pavilion turned into the “skin” of the exhibition activity, and the construction of the pavilion became a creation of clothing design. Shadows projected onto the thin translucent walls, lights reflected by the aluminum foil ducts, and visitors moving in a trance together created a contemporary dream between the virtual and the reality.