“Dancing Bamboo”

Course: ARCH 406

Typology: Pavilion

Location: College Park, Maryland

About: Bamboo is a wild and extraordinary plant. This unique plant is one of the most sustainable materials on the planet and is a dynamic resource. Bamboo is fast-growing and provides a sturdy yet light structure. When entering a bamboo forest, you get engulfed within the mass skyscrapers, and the color radiates a zen-like aura. Looking up into a bamboo forest, you are mesmerized by the linear towers of vast greenery. The leaves attached to the bamboo are small, but they also help with the bamboo’s aesthetics, creating shade but allowing a sufficient amount of light to pass through the forest and touch the earth’s surface.

Concept: The Dancing Bamboo pavilion utilizes the bamboo’s organic material and replicates that of a bamboo forest. The Pavilion play’s with the sun’s contrast of light and shade, generating shadows and creating this zenlike presence when entering the structure. In addition, to complement the wooded design, acrylic is cast over the bamboo to allow water to flow off the material and allow pedestrians to view the structural composition. Lastly, when walking into the modified bamboo forest in the center, you are greeted by a centerpiece with a controlled zone of bamboo and aesthetically pleasing flowers.