Jackalope Pavilion

Situated above the Prince of Wales car park in St Kilda, the pavilion is designed entirely around the requirements of Rain Room, the functional demands of its temporary home, and the potential re-use of the building and its’ components on another site.

The Jackalope Pavilion is an exercise in mediating between engineering and exhibition design, the architecture unites these two often competing constraints. The requirements included activation of a large open and underutilised space, an underslung water collection system, compliant access, all on top of a multi-level concrete carpark with a ‘wedding cake’ planning envelope to adhere to.

Elevated above Acland Street, the unusual typology turned to elevated display suites for inspiration and queues on constructability. Typically elevated for marketable views, the display suite model provided hints to the temporary and reusable, and celebration of the wonderfully utilitarian.

Whilst Rain Room itself will be relocated to its permanent home in 2022, the shed like structure will be unbolted and moved to another site.

Temporary site toilets were used to avoid landfill, and scaffolding façade system, implemented as an exoskeleton to provide both bracing and support for the Bondor panels, are both 100% reusable.

In consideration of the future use of the building, bolted steel sections and dismantlable Bondor panels were implemented to form the primary structure and the base building.

Designed from standard tube and fitting scaffolding painted white, the seemingly un-designed quality of the resulting structure feathers the edges a volume defined by the art piece within.  This implementation of an age-old construction system seeks to blend its mass with the clouds beyond.

Despite appearing entirely random, the project is a natural iteration of other digitally crafted projects from March Studio which embrace technology and construction to create new forms of expression.