Driftwood pavilion

“You can’t climb it, the wood’s not strong enough,” says a young scooter kid pulling energetically on the enigmatic plywood structure at the edge of Bedford Square. But a few seconds later, his disappointment has evaporated. “It’s lovely tho’, isn’t it?”

By Pamela Buxton

He’s right. This year’s Architectural Association summer pavilion may have nowhere to sit down and offer precious little shelter, but it is a winner nonetheless.

Entitled Driftwood, the pavilion was designed by a team led by third year student Danecia Sibingo and was inspired by images of Petra in Jordan. It took seven weeks to construct in six sections off site at Hooke Park in Dorset, using 28 layers of plywood on a spruce sub-frame.

AA pavilions can have a tendency to look a bit samey, due to the computer driven design and cutting technology and the consistency of the brief. But this one works beautifully, the large form suiting the scale of the massive sycamores in the square. The richly-coloured plywood forms a loose enclosure with the layering of the panels suggesting, variously, the movement of water, patterns left in the sand on the beach, or the gently eroded contours of a pebble. The corner of the square is a perfect location for such a pavilion – just up the road, Fitzroy Square, looks comparatively deprived for its lack of similar ornament.

Last summer, London seemed awash with temporary pavilions in parks and squares, fuelled by the staging of the London Festival of Architecture. This year, it’s left to just a few – the more glamorous Serpentine Pavilion and the AA’s Driftwood - to shine all the brighter.

Driftwood, is at Bedford Square, London WC1.