BA_LIK - Summer Stage and Exhibition Pavilion for Bratislava (dismantled)

BA_LIK pavilion designed by Vallo Sadovsky Architects is set in one of the Bratislava s historical squares. It is one of the projects of Urban Interventions, their long running initiative which invites young architects to propose feasible architectural solutions to various problems and neglected spaces in Bratislava, with the hope that, within an urban context, small changes can create big effects. Flexibility and mobility are main characteristics of the pavilion. The object itself is composed of 5 elements mounted on wheels that can be moved and connected so it becomes closed and compact or loosely open. During the summer months it can be used for various cultural activities: a theater performance, concert or a photography exposition. Similar to how a concert differs from a theater performance the proposed structure can adapt and change. In time when there is no particular event taking place, the pavilion becomes a modern city furniture, giving young contemporary identity to a square otherwise catering tourists with pseudohistoric 'little big city'.

The pavilion is part of an ongoing research of Vallo Sadovsky Architects on how people can influence and modify the urban space using small architectural objects and furniture. Naturally also various unintended types of interaction occur: the homeless sleep over, young people party inside, writers spray graphics, however none of them proved disruptive nor destructive. Fortunately, the BA_LIK pavilion proves the fool-proof strategy usually preferred by city officials wrong.