LASOVSKY JOHANSSON: PETAL is a playful kinetic structure, assembled from simple deck chairs in a cylindrical arrangement, that mirrors the changing appearance of a flower between day and night. During the day, the structure appears “in full bloom” when the sun loungers are opened up to provide access to a 360 degree bar and seating area. At night, the chairs collapse to form a screen for color or graphic projections.
The pavilion was designed and built for the CHART Art Fair 2023 and is currently located in the courtyard of the Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen, where it serves as a bar and event space. Following the principles of New European Bauhaus the pavilion is showcasing how sustainable design can be beautiful, functional and responsible.
The main driving force behind the design of the pavilion was to use an everyday product in a new way and still keeping its original functionality. With the simple deck chair in mind the temporary pavilion is designed to be easy to assemble and disassemble, while using the function of the chair itself and its advantages of being able to be flat packed or folded out to an open structure.
The pavilion is constructed in wood, with 18 vertical sections attached to a cylindrical bar built in plywood that functions as the base for the whole structure. Each section consists of five hanging deck chairs that are attached on the outside of the columns. The structure is kinetic where the chairs' original functionality of being able to be closed or open in different grades are kept and a total of nine engines (linear actuators) are controlling this movement. In the same way as a deck chair is maneuvered by hand, the engines are moving the lowest part of the chairs up and down through a track between the columns.
