The Mended Earth Pavillion
An outdoor streetcar pavillion made from recycled clay that invites users to become directly involved in its cycle of repair.
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problem
Public architecture often remains static and passive, failing to engage the community in its ongoing life or maintenance. I wanted to challenge the traditional concept of preservation by designing a structure that was specifically engineered to decay, thereby requiring human intervention to survive.
solution
I created a pavilion featuring a sturdy, fired outer shell that protects a raw, unfired clay interior designed to weather and crack over time. A glazed roof intentionally funnels rainwater into a central well to create a clay slurry, inviting visitors to physically mix pigment and repair the fissures by hand. This transforms "maintenance" into a collective ritual where the lines of repair become celebrated marks of community authorship rather than flaws.
I conceived this project as a critique of static architecture, making the deliberate decision to design a structure that requires human care to survive. The narrative is driven by a stark contrast in materiality: I detailed a permanent, fired outer shell to provide structural integrity, while specifying a raw, unfired clay interior designed to be "sacrificial" and weather over time. In the schematic phase, I engineered the roof geometry to actively funnel rainwater into the building rather than away from it, creating a hydrological system that washes debris into a central well to be rejuvenated into a slurry. This design choice transforms the act of maintenance into a public ritual; by inviting visitors to press pigmented clay into the eroded fissures, I envisioned the architecture as a living record where the "scars" of repair become celebrated marks of collective authorship.
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see also
