Zoí Pavilion

ZOÍ is freespace. A minimal, non-prescriptive space that accommodates any creative use by its inhabitants. For the Biennale di Architettura 2018, Francis Kéré explored the possible human reactions to a space open to free and unplanned appropriations.

Refugee camps, where primary needs are covered by standardised solutions, could be places that most need unexpected freespaces for improvisation and creativity.

With Atelier Kéré students from the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Kéré Architecture built ZOÍ in the Tentaja Space, a public area in the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin where leisure and sports activities encourage refugees and Berliners to interact. A small cocoon that returns human dimensions to the gigantic Tempelhof hangar, ZOÍ is used as comforting shelter from the estranging scale and spaces of the former airport, as a gathering point or quiet spot.

Its twin structure, displayed in the Artiglierie dell’Arsenale, played a different role. The visitor who inhabited ZOÍ in this configuration could experiment with its other uses, yet still feel the bond that links the structure to its identical pavilion in the former airport in Berlin.

In ZOÍ’s Berlin arrangement, 24 modular wooden triangles form a hexagonal base, while the appropriation in Venice cuts the hexagon in half and shifted the pieces into an elongated layout. Each seating triangle is covered by a layer of various, warmly coloured textile cushions. Above the visitors’ heads, surrounded by a plywood frame that mirrors the shape of the base, lengths of matching fabric form a roof. The thin wooden structure carrying the roof functions as a frame for a textile wall, which holds the installation’s printed manifesto.