A kiosk was originally an open-sided, free-standing pavilion located in parks and palace grounds in Islamic cultural areas. These usually consisted of ‘several crude pillars of tree trunks bearing a roof of straw or wood and enclosed below with a simple railing.’
The location in the park was based on the idea of working with a natural, unrefined raw material and developing it as both the design element and the load-bearing structure of the building. The inner shell is composed of twin wall sheets and acts as a water-repellent layer, ‘captures’ the shadow of the mesh and gives the kiosk spatial depth. The building also features a lighting installation that uses motion detectors to interact with passersby.
The sales kiosk is located in the park of the Bundesgartenschau, or BUGA, in Potsdam and will serve as an additional stand for the existing café on the water playground for selling ice cream, soft drinks and coffee during peak hours.
The load-bearing structure of the kiosk consists of willow poles that were stripped and attached to U-profiles with exhaust clamps. The poles were woven together into a wall panel, which shortens the buckling length of the individual poles and provides diagonal bracing, resulting in a rigid wall panel. The crossing points were tied together with stainless steel wire to prevent the individual crossing points from shifting. The result is an organic load-bearing structure based on SimpleTec, with a design and material characteristics that allow it to blend into its surroundings as a light, ephemeral object.
Since the kiosk only operates in the summer months, it is augmented by a lighting installation that brings the property to life during the period when it is not in use. Motion detectors are activated by passers-by, translating any movements in the immediate vicinity into light. This transforms the kiosk into an interactive feature of the park that communicates with the viewer.