SDA 2022 Entries

• Temporary Structure - A Temporary Structure that is not intended to remain where it is erected for more than a short period of time. This award focuses on the increase of temporary and pop-up structures being more sophisticated and aesthetical in their design

Set aside of its stone-build big sister, an enchanting garden deploys, extends and tends under the stroller’s curious eyes. The sacred architecture that faces it is convoked in its entire syncretic dimension. Arcs of all origins are linked to one another by a colorful woven structure that performs with light and mystery; hence revealing a light dematerialized architecture, that the stroller admires its variations while wandering in the vaults. By these suspended Ariane’s threads, the stroller is guided towards the center of the lot, a secret cloister. The glance rests then rises.
The Shooting Vaults project is part of 3 winning entries for the 2015 competition with the “landscape” garden theme. It is built to last during the month of June 2015 in the cloister of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Cahors. All together the festival exposes 25 gardens and counts 10000 visitors, it also greets many other activities all month of June.
The cost of the project is not communicated.

The materials used are wool, metal rods and cables. Most of the project is done with wool, which follows the metallic arches creating a twisted surface that morphs the different arches to each other. The wool strings used in great quantity with a 3mm spacing allow to generate a surface that evolves according to the arches shapes. This use of the wool creates a transparent vibrating surface that catches the light and increases the perspective feeling. The sensation of lightness and immateriality goes with the intention of bringing fragile and ephemeral art echoing with a sacred and mineral site. The surface of the installation makes its originality. It challenges the visitor curiosity led to touch it to feel the material reality...

The project has been done with unused wool given from the Italian filature "Linea Piu". It has been woven by hand with 8 people during one week. The wool will be kept after the installation and recycled by Atelier YokYok for a furniture project.
The metalic structure is made by standards metallic rods bended by hand and welded by the metalic sculptor Ulysse Lacoste. They will be reused afterwards in a private garden for a pergola project.
The global speech of this project refers to lightness and short lifetime in architecture. It challenges the question that ephemeral and fragile art can creates architecture just by scale, codes and immersive experience.

The realization of this project was not easy. Principally due to its experimental nature. Woving the wool each 3mm is very long as each of the weavers have to walk as many kilometers as the wool (in this cas 78km), which by the way talks a lot to the "Camino de Santiago" pilgrims who stop here...

Even though it's a fragile material, the addition of thousand of strings make the tension very strong. The inside cables tensed between the arches to maintain them, at the beginning of the installation, has been removed after achieving the wool step. The cables weren't tense anymore, the wool was assuming a structural role.

The fragility and vulnerability of the wool has been however put to the test, and despite a quite peaceful month of exhibition, an angry visitor decided finally to cut a part of the installation with cisors... the last day of the festival.

YokYok would like to thank: Ulysse Lacoste, Cahors Juin Jardins and all the students and interns of the festival who helped the team for the realization of this project.

The structure has been exposed from 1st June 2015 to 30th June 2015.