SOMBRA | MVRDV

For the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice, MVRDV collaborated with Metadecor, Airshade, and Alumet among others to create the SOMBRA pavilion. With its shape inspired by heliodon devices, this “ode to the sun” provides a dynamic shading structure in the European Cultural Centre’s Giardini Marinaressa. The SOMBRA pavilion – its name a portmanteau of the Latin words for sun (sol) and shade (umbra) – serves as a demonstration vehicle for an innovative technology: kinetic building elements that work based exclusively on passive physical principles, without using electronics or motors.

Credits
Architect: MVRDV
Founding Partner in charge: Jacob van Rijs
Partner: Bertrand Schippan
Design Team: Yayun Liu, Alberto Carro Novo
Copyright: MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries

Collaborators
Ideation, coordination, co-engineering, production, assembly, testing, installation: Metadecor
Ideation, Airshade Technology patent holder, research, co-engineering: Airshade Technologies
AMOLF Institute: Research and production actuation
Ideation, anodizing: Alumet
Mechanical engineering, colour and sunlight studies: Arup
Bending: Kersten Europe
Structural engineering: Van Rossum Raadgevend Ingenieurs
Photographs: © Federico Vespignani, © Jaap Heemskerk