Concept
AshariArchitects: Exhibition booths serve as temporary architectural spaces that, within a limited timeframe, introduce a brand’s products and services while fostering audience interaction. These structures are dismantled after the exhibition concludes. In the summer of 2024, Tehran Design Week was held across multiple locations in the city, and we were commissioned to design the ROST collection’s booth at the Tehran International Exhibition. ROST aimed for an active presence in this event, and we had only one month to design and execute the project.
Design Challenge
As a form of temporary architecture, exhibition booths are expected to maximize audience engagement within their brief existence. However, they often face constraints related to budget, space, and construction time, leaving them redundant post-event. Moreover, the visitor experience in exhibition spaces is typically transient and lacks a lasting impact. These challenges raised critical design questions:
-How can we design a booth that extends visitor engagement and fosters deeper interaction?
-Can the relationship between the booth and the exhibition space be redefined innovatively?
-How can a booth be designed for easy disassembly and future reuse?
Presence and Interaction
To break the monotony of conventional booths, we introduced modular spatial diversity, ensuring that each section invites visitors to pause, linger, and engage. This approach transformed the booth into a dynamic, interactive pavilion. The integration of curved forms created varied openings that enhanced spatial permeability, while the interplay of open and enclosed surfaces fostered fluidity, guiding visitors through an experience of movement, discovery, and engagement.
Dialogue Between the Pavilion and the Exhibition
Our design approach redefined the relationship between interior and exterior through spatial boundaries. Following material explorations, we selected semi-transparent polycarbonate panels for both the interior and exterior surfaces. These panels not only established a focused display environment but also enabled an interplay of light, shadow, and movement, generating a sense of ambiguity, mystery, and curiosity for visitors. Abstract silhouettes and blurred visuals encouraged exploration, creating a dialogue between the booth and its surroundings while subtly inviting visitors to discover new perspectives.
To further emphasize the temporary nature of the pavilion and distinguish it from its surroundings, we elevated it above the exhibition floor, suspending it in a way that its boundaries were solely defined by the difference in height. By manipulating thresholds, we enabled multiple layers of interaction between the interior and exterior.
Temporariness and Sustainability
In alignment with temporary pavilion design principles, we prioritized lightweight construction, portability, cost-efficiency, rapid assembly/disassembly, and reusability. The use of polycarbonate sheets minimized material waste, reduced labor requirements, and ensured an economically viable execution. Furthermore, these panels can be repurposed for other ROST branches or future pavilions, reinforcing an environmentally conscious approach.
This project challenges conventional notions of temporary exhibition spaces, advocating for a more sustainable and adaptable design methodology.
