Each year, the National Gallery of Victoria organise a two-stage architectural competition for a pavilion in the Grollo garden of the museum.
This year, lacoste+stevenson designed a giant QR code maze creating a surprising and memorable backdrop for NGV’s collection of garden sculptures. the maze is both perceptibly man made and natural. over-time the geometry deforms and the golden hay bales disappear below a field of grasses.
a-mazing proposes an architecture that frames space and art, reinforces the notion of impermanence, transition, sustainability, sustenance, and play.
With the initiatives of cop26 fresh in mind, the 2022 NGV architecture pavilion is a proposal that is completely biodegradable whilst being transformative and playful.
Upon entering the Grollo Equiset garden, the scent of hay is an evocative transport to another place. the stack of densely packed bales, a maze, choreographing a game of hide and seek with the garden’s prized collection.
The bales are seeded with indigenous grass seeds ready to activate and transform their host. time will allow them to evolve, dissolving the edges of the geometry, becoming more ephemeral, responsive to the breeze. over time the bales will sag and at the end of the pavilion’s duration, be returned to the earth.
Play within the QR code is two-fold, experiential and digital. as a physical labyrinth, the visitor weaves around the collection exploring a multitude of possible pathways, sometimes the garden bridges over the path creating a lowered space under which to pass.
Activated digitally, the QR code links to the story of the exhibit, the detail of its deliberately short life cycle. images of its various events and its changing appearance over time are posted, as the seeds mature take shape, bloom and fruit.
