Playful Architecture - Pavilions

This post is a sampling of the delightful pavilion structures I have happened upon near home, in Hawaii and Portugal.

Pavilion definition - A light, usually open building used for shelter, concerts or exhibits, as in park or fair.

We’ll start with this playful pavilion by Edward Durrell Stone. It was relocated to nearby Vina Vieja Park from nearby Stuart Pharmaceutical Building.

Back in my San Diego days, James Hubbell’s Pacific Portal, below, was always a favorite to run through. It is delightfully whimsical, sculptural in concrete and with beautiful interior tile mosaics to boot.

A picnic pavilion below on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i in Lydegate Beach Park exhibits details of tropical modernism. I am particularly fond of the lava rock wall and the soaring wood ceiling.

The Portuguese Pavilion of 1998, designed by Alvaro Siza, was a prominent feature at the Lisbon Expo 98. The large pergola, shaped like a catenary curve, represents the sails of Portuguese ships, and the space’s natural light behaves like a large window to the sea.

This final pavilion, a lightweight architectural work of art, is found in the Parque de Serralves in Porto.