Ice Block-Formed Pavilions : falling hours

The architects from the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design created the Falling Hours pavilion using a cable membrane as the main structure. It is then stacked with bricks of ice made from river water in Qinhuangdao, China. It is made by a team at BIAB led by architects Xiyan Yang, Guanjia Li, and Chenzhi Yan.

Visitors are invited to collect sand from the beach and this is then poured through the hole at the top of the pavilion, which creates the conical membrane roof, functioning as a large hourglass. The project team explains that “The centre of the hourglass is a pressurised gusset that holds up the roof and at the same time holds up the membrane at the lower end of the spokes.”

Image Credit: BIAD