American studio PARA Project has designed a wooden pavilion on a canal in Bruges, Belgium, to be an uncanny "doppelgänger" of an adjacent 15th-century canal house.
The pavilion, called Bruges Diptych, was designed as an events space for the 2021 Bruges Triennial, which for its third edition invited responses to the curatorial theme of "TraumA".
Top image: the pavilion floats on the canal. Above: it was designed for the Bruges Triennial. Photo is by Iwan Baan
According to its curators, this was an exploration of the "hidden spaces" that reveal the reality of life behind the outward image of the city's famous medieval centre, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"What is going on behind those stately facades"" asked the Biennial's curatorial statement. "How is the 'medieval city' actually being experienced and lived in"" The pavilion is split into two intersecting forms. Photo is by Jasper van het Groenewoud
PARA responded by designing a pavilion with a form that, from a distance, appears to mimic the form and scale of the neighbouring medieval canal houses.
On closer inspection, the pavilion is split into two intersecting forms that give the illusion of being pulled apart, a conceptual response to the idea of "revealing" what lies behind the city's facades.
It serves as an interactive events space
"The Diptych serves as an event space for the Triennale's programming, addressing issues in urban trau...