Butterfly Streetcar Pavilion

A sequence of pavilions translating the lifecycle and perception of a butterfly into spatial experience.

Studio Assignment

This project was developed as part of a streetcar pavilion brief focused on designing an urban shelter that functions as both infrastructure and experience. The pavilion was required to provide protection from the elements, accommodate a range of users and postures, and create a strong sense of place within the city. The design responds to those requirements through a user-centered concept that combines seating, shelter, circulation, and environmental awareness.

Project Description

This project translates the butterfly lifecycle into a sequence of four connected pavilions: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. Each stage represents a shift in enclosure, visibility, and elevation, creating a progression from protection to openness. The design abstracts these conditions through variations in form, light, and material, guiding users through a spatial experience rather than a single static shelter. Native planting reinforces the ecological narrative, connecting the pavilion to its surrounding environment.

The pavilion is organized as a progression through four stages of spatial experience. Each pavilion reflects a different condition of visibility, enclosure, and elevation, allowing the user to move through spaces that gradually shift from grounded and protected to open and exposed.

Egg Pavilion

The egg pavilion is the most compressed and protected condition. It is positioned low to the ground and offers limited outward visibility, emphasizing enclosure and proximity to the surface.

Caterpillar Pavilion

The caterpillar pavilion introduces partial visibility through layered vertical elements. These components filter views and create a fragmented visual experience, suggesting limited but increasing awareness of the surrounding environment.

Chrysalis Pavilion

The chrysalis pavilion is more enclosed and introspective. It creates a moment of isolation and transformation through controlled light, tighter boundaries, and a stronger sense of interiority.

Butterfly Pavilion

The butterfly pavilion is the most open and elevated stage. It offers the greatest visibility and spatial freedom, allowing for a more expansive relationship to the surrounding site and completing the progression from protection to release.

year

2025

timeframe

5 Weeks

tools

Rhino 3D, Adobe Suite