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City of Dreams Pavilion - the Switchgrass Project

The point of departure for The Switchgrass Project is the invention of an architectural form to advocate the urgency of climate change. With this trajectory, our project departs from conventional materials of durability to materials of decomposition. In other words, our project is designed to disappear and blend back into nature in time using bio-degradable materials. For this purpose, we created an artificial landscape out of recycled cardboard boxes, functioning as a seed catcher with its textured surface, catching floating seeds in the wind and nurturing them through its natural water retention. 

The main material of the landscape is cardboard, which is abundant in urban settings and is superior to other alternatives in recyclability, biodegradability, and processability. The selection of laminated cardboard panels as the project's skin makes further sense for its ease of assembly and attachment to a structure, its gradual decay under the elements, and, with additional layering, its possibility of providing an engineered growth mat for vegetation where our second concept comes in: carbon footprint reduction.

Design principal

Selim Vural, AIA

Project team

Aslihan Kazanci

Phase

Competition

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