JOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BULOING ENGINEERING 2023, VOL 22, NO. 1, 84-95, ‘tp doiog/ 1010803467581 2021202897 Taylor & Francis retenesconp ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY AND THEORY OPEN ACCESS es ese Pavilion as an architecture of new placeness : a case of Serpentine Pavilion project Hyejin Jung and Soram Park Department of Architecture, Inha Univesity Incheon, Republic of Korea ansranct Pavilions are flexible, open architectural structures, usually erected in parks and gardens. And they played a significant role in the political and cultural propaganda through Intemational exhibitions in the 19th century, as well as in the presentations of new technologies and materials. By focusing on the concept of temporality, this study takes a novel approach and examines the role ofthe pavilion from the perspective of nomadic, wandering cultures through a case of Serpentine Pavillon Project. This study is based on the interpretive and critical approach which relies on gathering cases and references about the phenomenon or literature ii hand. We provide a history overview and trace the changes in the concept of place atthe dawn of the modern era, investigating how the Serpentine Pavilion reflects @ modern under- standing of placeness Essentially, it argues thatthe pavilion, as a special temporary achitec- {ural form, can be used as the foundation of modem discourse on placeness. As a material and spatial alternative to such placeness, the pavilion constitutes an important architectural typ. ARTICLE HISTORY Receved 20 January 2021 ‘Accepted 22 December 2021 Pavilion; placenes ‘temporally the Serpentine Paion; place for events 1. Introduction Held annually, the Serpentine Gallery's Pavilion Project presents artwork that illustrates a materilis- tic way of expressing new ideas, despite being con- structed as a temporary structure in the museum's space. The contemporary pavilion seems to have established itself as a symbolic work to declare the identity of the architect and the agenda of contem- porary urban architecture. Pavilion began to appear in the architectural discourse when the exhibit hall constructed as a political and cultural exhibit for world fairs popularized in the 19th century and was named pavilion. Through the exhibitions’ pavi- lion, architects of the time presented new technol ‘ogies and forms symbolizing their culture, Modernists later used it as a model to demonstrate their own architectural solutions or the architect's biography (Dodds 2005). Dodds (2005) and Samson (2016) highlighted its theoretical role, focusing on exhibition constructions such as the Barcelona Pavilion. Their studies also showed that the pavilion was essentially a reflection of the constructional form of wandering and nomadic cultures, the oppo- site of settlement. From this, we reveal that it is an architectural form expressing modern places based ‘on mobility and nomadic culture that existing the- oties of place based on fixed settlements cannot explain, However, the role of the pavilion as a spatial reproduction of a particular thought and Institution ironically stems from its temporary nat- ure. The definition of a pavilion is a “light temporary or semipermanent structure in the garden’, According to this definition, the main attributes of the pavilion are lightness and temporality. If the monument is a structure fixed to the ground with a ceremonial spirit that yearns for eternity, the pavilion is a tent built for a short time on a field Where certain valid experiences are held during specific moments. In other words, if a monument is built to permanently preserve a particular spirit, the pavilion is a surface spread out to relish events of ‘relatively momentary experiences and percep- tions. In this light, the pavilion has the potential to become an architectural form that exposes the historical limitations of discourse on place, which is based on the permanence from poetic dwelling and. location of construction and universality (Heidegger 1971). This study is based on the interpretive and critical qualitative approach which relies on gather- ing cases and references about the phenomenon or literature in hand. This approach was done by col- lating, analyzing and interpreting data to reach acceptable generalizations. Therefore, this study argues that the pavilion, as a special temporary architectural form, can be used as the foundation of modern discourse on place. To this end, we trace ‘CONTACT Soran Park @parksoramgnaiicom @) 103 Dang 103 Ho. 27, Gnanako 3-H, Donglokegu Seoul Republic of Korea, Zipcode: O7031 © az The Ahr) bse iy fra UX United adn 25 Tal Fans Group on eb he recuse of pa, Atel tite of oes and Tis an Ope Aces arte strut ude he tems of the Cresve Commons Atbution Leese (hip/reatvecomenonsrgcrsesby/40, wich pes “weseed ws, ston, and epeducion n any meu, pod th ail Wek s propery cedJOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BULOING ENGINEERING @) 85 the changes in the concept of place at the dawn of the modern era and investigate how the Serpentine Pavilion, as a historical one and a modern artwork, reflects contemporary understandings of place. We argue that modern universal architectural spaces result from “placelessness.” Moreover, they are new sites that enable us to discover the conditions of a "new place” that reflects modern life and thoughts. 2. From rooted place for dwelling to floating space for events The tendency to emphasize the “place” as part of an act of reflecting on modernity stems from Heidegger, who realized the existence of modern people. The place is understood as “the material background and specific location where humans build social relation- ships and have a subjective and emotional attachment to." (Cresswell 2073). In other words, the place is a way in which humans exist in relation to the world and refers to their existence itself, including the existence being granted meaning or expressing it. This concept of the place emphasizes “rooting down” in contrast to a sedentary agricultural life and a wandering nomadic one and argues that the place Is the spatial construction of the continuous time of the sedentary life. Citing Hélderlin’s verse, “Human beings live on the _ earth poetically."(Heidegger 2000). Heidegger considered the combination of the place of dwelling and its meaning to be its essence. The Greek temple that he used as an example reveals the nature of the place, which had been concealed by the construction of a particular site and by it "standing there.” According to Heidegger, Das In-Sein is already an entity that “resides” and cannot be separated from the site it is located in, thus establishing its own space. Dasein can become an open and creative being through art because the essence of artwork is a phenomenon of truth weaved by concealing and revealing. In other words, Dasein earns its location, or place in the world by building its own reproduction, The spatial experience associated with 2 particular spirit formed through a relationship with nature pro- vides a figure to the location through a boundary and threshold. In addition, the building as a whole inte- grated into the act of building is a container that collects through the object-body fourfold through its relationship with nature and is simultaneously a "place of dwelling.” Heidegger viewed the architec tural space, integrating construction and reproduc- tion as a “place” through the equivalence of the building-dwelling, However, as the internationalist style and urban design ideologies based on modernism were universa- lized along with the emergence of an industrial society, the modern urban architecture landscape, distinct from the historical landscape, changed the perception of the place where it took root and the architectural space it was representing. Notably, Relph (1976) and. Shultz (2019) declared that modern urban architecture, characterized by “an open and fluid vast space that causes a loss of a sense of direction, a weakening of the symbolism of facade, and a weakening of regional differences,” isa space of “Placelessness.” The modern space is dificult to provide the experience of the tradi- tional “location” due to its tendency to pursue univers- ality and technological rationality, replacing regionality and history. Interestingly, modem architects agonized over the format of expressing modernity, which is the reason for “placelessness” in a symbolic way. S. Giedion, in parti- cular, believed in the necessity of monumentality in modern architecture and demanded the reintroduc- tion of symbolism into architecture in a way different from that of the past. ‘As modernists who rejected the foundation and corrupted ornament of the past looking for a stable form that would maintain the new values of the time, Cenotaph for Newton (1784) by Etienne-Louis Boullée, Barcelona Pavilion (1929) by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and others played the role of messengers of the symbolic values despite their temporary quality Since transportation technology has become com- monplace in the modern age, lands and regions have become fragmented and the scope of urban life has been greatly expanded, depriving the proximity of the former era; however, at the same time, it has recon- nected things that had been disconnected and were far apart, bringing back a different sense of proximity- remoteness. This has revitalized the regional impor- tance and accelerated the speed of globalization. In a global modern society where communities in varying places can be formed and dismantled by electronic network technology, individuals can “select” a place without a connection to existing places or commu- nities. Even if there is a place where the community and the place are equivalent, the place is experienced differently for each member (Massey 1994). From the perspective of viewing nomadic dwelling in its essence, the state of fixating the place is rather special and exceptional. From this point of view, a home is the basis for discovering and occupying the surrounding environment ~ it is more of a boundary rather than a place and an act of producing differences (Dal Co 1990), Francesco Dal Co saw that the solidarity of the “dwelling-home-place” was dismantled by the de- mythologization of the dwelling. He also saw that all the roots and the “loss of home’ outside of the dwell- ing were the essence of life. He believed that the essential character of a home lies in wandering as an Indispensable alternative to establishing a dwelling,86 © WUNG AN s Pan The modern way of existence continues to perceive the place as a production of an event, rather than a revelation of something that permanently exists (Rubio 2004). Defining dwelling and location as a continuous production of individual events is to understand the binary oppositional relationship between settlement ‘and wandering as a noncontrastive relation. An event refers to the act of establishing a place and to trans- form a universal and petmanent place into a separate, transient form of occupancy (Derrida 1986). With the emphasis on location as a production of events, the uniqueness of the physical site and the importance of, fixed forms show a tendency to fade. The efforts to establish the unique symbol of the modern civilization drive-by transportation technology and mass industrial production aim to overcome the force of gravity and thus regard the act of “taking root" at a place as a loss of uniqueness and peculiarity. The ideal expressed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s spherical house, which fist appeared in the 18th century, was a denial of constructive foundation that had been con- strained by gravity. The anti-constructive foundation and simultaneity enabled by amplified mobility brought freedom and transparency into the surface of architectures (Giedion 2009). Meanwhile, the sense of placelessness and mobility, weakened the uniqueness bound with a site and a place and the authenticity derived therefrom. Itis well- known that the process of “commercialization” where the uniqueness of a good separated from a place trans- forms into disposableness and repetitiveness has been accelerated by the culture of world fairs popular in the 19th century. On “placelessness,” the architecture of the 1970s referred to the emotional connection between humans and places or environments “topo- philia” (Tuan 1974) and highlights the endemism and regionality of lands and materials. In addition, Frampton emphasized the architectonic suitability for a particular site through critical regionalism and urged resistance against the homogenization trend of mod- em capitalism through the means of specific material- ity (Frampton 1983). Site specificity, which appeared in art, began with the early work of minimalism and that of Richard Serra, and confronted modernist tabula rasa in the context of 2 particular land to have meaning only in that space. ‘The works cannot be moved to the exhibition without dismantling them, and thus, they have been given authority because of this (Miller 2013). However, sub- sequent critical works take issue with the institutional influence of the framework of a particular place itself, break down the equivalence between it and the work, ‘and emphasize the work or process of the place. Considered important in performance art are “ges- tures, events, and performances performed within the framework of temporary boundaries,” and the work is understood to reflect non-configuration and tempor- ality as a movement/process (Kwon 2004). ‘Additionally, post-industrial theorists focus on the trends of deformation and non-materialization of the ‘material world by electronic media. Virtual experiences through the media and simulation deprives the experi- ence of tactile integration from phenomenological bodies. Simulacre, as a reproduction, is not a real experience and questions the authenticity of the place (Baudrillard 1992) Such critical responses to the loss of the place of ‘modernism seem to emphasize the focus on ideologi- ‘al places and their de-materialization. At the same time, however, values such as originality and author- ship strayed from the object and leaned toward the location. Although recent place-oriented works may seem to have lost the material basis of the place due to trends such as emphasis on events and perfor- ‘mances, and de-objectifying and de-spacing, artworks always seem to be combined with the exhibition site. In addition, the concept of the event as a regenerative action of the place itself and a resistance to the already established order defines the understanding of the ‘modem place. 3. Pavilion: from shelter to events 3.1. Temporary but original: shelter or shrine The word “pavilion” originates from the French archaic word pavellun, derived from the Latin word papilio, Which means butterfly. It refers to the temporary nat- ure of tent structures presented as moving, extraordin- ary, thin, and light images resembling butterflies. Pavilion in architecture is commonly considered as a “lightweight and largely open structure dedicated to a single purpose” (Samson 2016) and refers to a shelter in a garden or an exhibit hall. In addition, itis a free- standing unit exposed in all directions and expresses “the idea of architectural shelter.” Marc-Antoine Laugier (2009) proposed a single-cell type of shelter, “primitive hut", constructed with natural objects to explain the fundamental elements of architecture, The idea of primitive hut as a shelter for humans unprotected from nature emphasized the rooted con- struction based on the tectonics of the pillars and beams anchored on the ground as the origin of archi- tecture; but in fact, such structures intended to fune- tion as roofs and walls across the fabric as a barrier between nature and human bodies. Fundamentally, fabricated tents indicated that the dwelling was to cover the exposed body. The tent was originally a form of construction for nomadic dwelling. After humans adopted a lifestyle of settlement, it providedJOURNAL OF ASIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING ENGINEERING @) 87 ‘temporary living quarters for trade and transport. As such, “place of dwelling,” which encompass settlement and wandering, were divided into two constructive forms. One was the mass of masonry construction and the bond between the foundation and the ground to support it, and the other was the fabrication of the bough and cloth. Settlement is a vertical force perpen- dicular to the ground, and mobility is a lateral force rifting the surface of the ground. The tent also enables reconciliation and coexistence with nature. A garden is known as a combination of the Hebrew gan, which means “fence,” and Oden, which means “joy.” The etymology of garden means the humanization of nature and the experience of joy felt there. The ancient garden was a place of leisure for contemplation, relaxation, and hunting, as well as a venue for events for the display of power. Persia's gardens were intended to be a “paradise” that did not just lock nature up and domesticate it, but an area in which humans could unite in complete recon-