This pavilion in Holon, Israel, designed by New York-based architects MODU with Geotectura, has a dynamic canopy made of mesh fabric and small balls that move with the wind (+ movie).
Called the Cloud Seeding Pavilion, the 2,500-square-foot (232 square meter) structure is located outside the Design Museum Holon – Israel's only museum dedicated to design, which occupies a building designed by Ron Arad that opened in 2010.
Though it is used to hold small events, the pavilion is designed to be an attraction in its own right due to its ever-shifting ceiling plane made of thousands of white plastic balls.
The lightweight spheres move in response to even small changes in wind direction, creating an interplay of light and shadows on the ceiling and the ground.
"Our practice is always trying to work on the border of architecture and the environment," Rachely Rotem, director at MODU, told Dezeen. "When we first came to the site we noticed that it was very hot, but the wind was very present there."
MODU used a conventional greenhouse frame – very common in Israeli agriculture – which is inexpensive and easy to construct. Simple beach chairs under the ceiling encourage visitors to lounge and observe the movement above.
"The nature of good public space is that it's not over prescribed," said Phu Hoang, principal at MODU. "The project is less about the form than how you engage the public."
The 30,000 balls are made of recycled PET plastic and are suspended between architectural fabric mesh panels that allow air to flow through.
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MODU conceived the structure as a prototype and the firm is currently in talks with another organisation about creating a second version on a different site in Holon.
Pavilions, Rotem said, have always been an important typology for architectural experimentation and research. Other recent pavilions include the water-purifying Cosmo by Andrés Jacque at MoMA PS 1 and a canopy of folded metal plates by Boston studio Höweler + Yoon in Pheonix.
Photography is by Aviad Bar Ness. Video by Ori Zifroni.