The “PURE Tension” Volvo Pavilion, a collaborative effort between Synthesis Design + Architecture, Buro Happold, and Fabric Images, is a lightweight, rapidly deployable, free-standing tensioned membrane structure and portable charging station commissioned by Volvo Car Italia to showcase the new Volvo V60 Hybrid Electric Diesel car. This experimental structure was developed through a process of rigorous research and development that investigated methods of associative modeling, dynamic mesh relaxation, geometric rationalization, paneling, and material performance. These explorations illustrate the dialogue between design, engineering, and fabrication that define this project.
Volvo’s “Switch to Pure Volvo” competition, organized by international architecture magazine THE PLAN, called for an innovative and original design for a temporary pavilion that expressed a “strong and creative identity” to showcase the car at fairs and open air presentations in Italian squares. SDA’s approach was to use the car’s design as a flexible and sustainable vehicle as the basis to reimagine the typical trade show pavilion. The ‘Switch to Pure Volvo” pavillion becomes a symbol of the V60’s attitude to efficient energy consumption and a showcase of the Hybrid V60’s characteristics.
