ABSTRACT
The pavilion in the landscape affords many freedoms, making it the object of many structural experiments where its situation is the only tether. This was the subject of a coordinated project between two courses. An urbanism studio provided an urban and social agenda in which to situate the architectural ambitions of a structures course, while the development of detailed architectural structures tested urban ideas at human scale. This paper presents three precedents of landscape pavilions in Boston serving as didactic models of tectonic and urbanistic agendas, and analyzes student work: sectional (free body) diagrams, physical models, and spreadsheet models— testing space, stability, and strength—against corresponding products in urbanism studio. An analysis of learning outcomes showed that the stronger connection between projects resulted in better articulation of site flows on structural forms and better engagement with the ground; as well as a moderate correlation between tectonic thinking and human scale thinking in the urban project.
