pavilion studio
mcgill university | winter 2019 | 2 months
instructor: hubert pelletier
in collaboration with: peter ehvert
The spring convocation ceremonies at McGill University take place in late May, bringing over 18 000 people to the campus each year. The tent is situated on the lower field on the campus, where 12 separate ceremonies are held. This new tent design provides an alternative to the generic tent that McGill rents annually to house the celebration.
With a total capacity of 3200 seats, the redesigned tent stands as a new symbol of the McGill convocation ceremonies. The tent is composed of three interwoven double-synclastic tensile shapes, held in tension by masts and cables. Its purity and weightlessness embody the prestige associated with a student’s graduation, and the semi-transparent walls allow for visual contact with the campus, maintaining the tent’s connection to McGill and the surrounding campus buildings.
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