Cloud Seeding Tel Aviv Plaza Pavilion, Design Museum Holon Architecture, Israel, Images

Cloud Seeding Plaza Pavilion in Holon

Design Museum Building in Israel – design by MODU with Geotectura, Architects

28 Dec 2016

Cloud Seeding Plaza Pavilion Holon

Location: south of Tel Aviv, Israel

Design: MODU with Geotectura

Cloud Seeding, a plaza pavilion for Israel’s national design museum, Design Museum Holon, shows that design can do more than fulfill a public need: it can foster engaging public experiences.

The structure is located in the museum’s urban plaza and used for various events hosted by the museum and the city.

The public is invited to attend performances, join outdoor dance classes, read a book from the loan library, or simply lounge in the shade. Beach chairs encourage visitors to lounge while viewing the moving ceiling overhead.

The multi-use plaza pavilion welcomes both museum visitors and the general public to engage with its public space. “Cloud Seeding” creates boundaries between sun and shade that are dynamic, responsive, and fragmented. These boundaries are the result of thousands of lightweight balls, or “seeds,” in motion on a fabric mesh ceiling.

The “seeds” are made of PET plastic and are recycled content from plastic water bottles. The ceiling supports 30,000 balls that move freely with the wind across its surface.

This overhead movement allows public events to occur in different areas of the pavilion, connecting its cultural and leisure programs to the invisible forces of weather.

The wind microclimates in the museum’s plaza are given physical form as a moving ceiling that captivates the public below. The daily breezes from the Mediterranean Sea that increase in the afternoon create an essential public experience—both transformative and adaptable.

“Cloud Seeding” also transforms a building type ubiquitous in Israel’s agricultural landscape: the greenhouse. In this context, the greenhouse consists simply of a structural frame (without wall and roof panels) that supports the mesh ceiling and balls.

The agricultural greenhouse has been re-appropriated as a plaza pavilion for culture, leisure and public events—all informed by the changing patterns of the weather overhead.

About MODU
MODU is an interdisciplinary architecture practice specializing in smart design that connects people to their environments. Based in New York City with an associate office in London, MODU has completed projects in New York, Miami, Beijing, London, and Sydney. Co-directed by Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem, MODU has won international design competitions
and awards sponsored by the Architectural League of New York, Beijing Architecture Biennial, Core77 and the Netherlands Architecture Institute.

The architects practice was recently awarded a commendation for “21 for 21,” an international award that recognizes architects who will “lead the next generation of architects in the 21st century.”

The architectural practice’s interdisciplinary, multi-scalar approach has led to projects that bridge several disciplines of the built environment, from architecture to urbanism to interiors.

Photography: Aviad Bar Ness

Cloud Seeding Plaza Pavilion in Holon images / information from MODU Architecture

Design Museum Holon
Design: Ron Arad, London

image courtesy designer
Design Museum Holon

Location: Design Museum Holon, Israel, Middle East

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