Abstract Architecture in Urban Space: Exploring the Legacy of Groningen’s Video-Pavilions

Abstract

The architectural pavilion is a common occurrence, from artistic institutional showpieces and prototypes for design schools to ephemeral structures in urban space. Preceding contemporary iterations, a 1990 urban festival in Groningen forecast the pavilion's future uses and popularity. Five “Video-Pavilions” were commissioned for “What a Wonderful World! Music Videos in Architecture,” a festival testing the pavilion's potential as an urban catalyst, a commissioning model, an exhibition strategy, and form of experimental architecture. Revisiting Groningen's pavilions illuminates an early instance of abstract architecture in urban space, the opportunities and issues which orbited them, and their enduring impacts today.

Keywords:

• pavilions
• music-videos
• urban design

Notes

1 Groninger Museum, What a Wonderful World: Music Videos in Architecture (Groningen: Groninger Museum/Dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening Gemeente Groningen, 1990).

2 Research on the video-pavilions involved interviews with former city architect Niek Verdonk and with the practicing architecture and urbanism historian from Groningen’s City Planning Office Erik Dorsman.

3 Paul Hefting and Camiel van Winkel, eds., The Books of Groningen: Marking the City Boundaries (Groningen: City Planning Department, 1990); Staat in Groningen, “A Star is Born” (Groningen: Platform GRAS, CBK Groningen), available online: http://www.staatingroningen.nl/manifestatie/1/a-star-is-born; Staat in Groningen, “Blue Moon” (Groningen: Platform GRAS and CBK Groningen), available online: http://www.staatingroningen.nl/40/blue-moon-paviljoen-lutkenieuwstraat/.

4 Ivan Nio, “The Aestheticization of Collectivity,” in A Star is Born: Groningen – De Stad Als Podium = The City as a Stage, ed. Bart Lootsma, Hélène Damen, and Karen Gamester (Bussum: THOTH, 1996), 33.

5 Tschumipaviljoen Foundation, “Tschumipaviljoen,” available online: https://www.tschumipaviljoen.org/en/tschumipaviljoen/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Annalise Varghese

Annalise Varghese is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Queensland, and part of the Australian Research Council-funded project “Is Architecture Art? A History of Categories, Concepts and Recent Practices.” Her current research explores the historical development of architectural follies and pavilions, the issues they raise regarding the disciplinary identities of art and architecture, and the globalization and representation of architectural concepts and practices.