Sponsored by Creative Foundation, a non-profit organization, the latest Folkestone Triennial included a selection of public art installations that went up on emblematic spots of the town during the two months the event lasted. One of them was the bamboo pavilion designed by the Dutch artist Gabriel Lester, a sculptural installation for outdoor activities built on the old harbor railway viaduct, which is a brick structure no longer in use.

Apparently ethereal, the bamboo intallation is composed of three constructive families. The first one, with a structural character, consists of a framework of standardized scaffolding – which defines the geometry of the piece – and is built with steel pieces connected with dovetail joints that, thanks to their telescopic supports, can adapt to the irregularities of the site.

Light and modular, this structure is clad with timber boards that are habitually used to build the work platforms of the scaffolding, but that, once decontextualized, serve here to build the 100 square meters of surface that the flaps, seating area, and slabs of the pavilion take up.

Finally, the third family is the three-dimensional lattice, a shell of sorts with sides 12 x 6 meters long and 13 meters high, built with over 3,800 linear meters of bamboo canes joined with ropes or metallic pieces that connect them to the resistant structure of the scaffolding. Placed vertically or horizontally depending on the degrees of permeability, the bamboo canes give the pavilion its evanescent and organic character.