Central Park Summer Pavilion

Central Park is one of the most known and visited park in the world and it is located in heart of Ney York City, becoming one of the most characterizing feature of the city pattern. Due to varieties of activities present in the city and in the park, the pavilion should embodied a new experience, able to surprise and attract people, it should be something unique. Hence, starting from one of the most limiting characteristic of the summer season, the warm weather, and the desire of create something “inside” the surrounding, the idea of design a swimming pool inside the lake took place. Conceptually the project creates a space able at the same time to restore and surprise. So, what is better than design a swimming pool inside the lake? Maybe a theatre, or an exhibition space, or a concert hall or a multi-usage space. From here the idea of link all these suggestions together. The result is a pavilion inside the biggest lake of Central Park, the Reservoir, inspired by the water itself and its mutable behaviour. The peculiarity of the pavilion is its double nature of a swimming pool, where people can relax, take advantage of the fresh air and have fun, and of a theatre, where experience the unique location and surrounding perception, being in the central part of the biggest lake in New York. The pavilion is connected with the banks thank to a reflective path that cross the entire lake. The first suggestion raised from the impression to literally walk on the water followed from the surprise of finding a pavilion, which was no visible from the ground. This relationship between empty and full is the key aspect of the pavilion and the element that stimulates emotion and suggestion in the visitors. Finally, the pavilion, respecting the surrounding, is also able to give a unique point of view of the park: the real feeling of being part of the nature is experienced.