Under the Birch - A Dialogue in Architecture
A lightweight timber pavilion exploring longevity through circular design.
The pavilion was commissioned as a modest garden house, intended to offer shelter without asserting itself as an object. The design seeks a sensitive, contemporary architecture that integrates with the existing landscape and allows nature to remain the primary presence.
Positioned beneath the canopy of a single birch, the pavilion is conceived as a precise and lightweight timber structure that places the tree at its center. The open frame defines space through proportion and rhythm rather than enclosure, creating a quiet architectural counterpart to the garden.
Constructively, the pavilion explores principles of circular design and longevity. It is assembled from a limited number of untreated timber elements, connected through dry, reversible joints that allow for disassembly, repair, or reuse. The structural logic is intentionally legible, reducing complexity and avoiding composite systems to support long-term adaptability.
Rather than being conceived as a finished object, the pavilion functions as a built framework—one that can age, change, or be reconfigured over time. It offers a sheltered place for pause and reflection, understood as a threshold between built form and landscape, and as an architectural gesture that frames what already exists while foregrounding the relationship between material, construction, and nature.