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Broken umbrellas and bicycle wheels get a second life in these two, completely recyclable pavilions on Governors Island

Broken umbrellas and bicycle wheels get a second life in these two, completely recyclable pavilions on Governors Island

Two whimsical summer pavilions on New York City’s Governors Island have been slated for reuse elsewhere, themselves built from recycled and repurposed materials.

The Billion Oyster Pavilion by BanG Studio and the Organic Growth Pavilion by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects both tied as winners in the annual City of Dreams design competition, and the jury, torn between the two, greenlighted both pavilions, launching a dedicated Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund their construction.

The pavilions will soon reincarnate as decorative chandeliers, sun canopies, and oyster beds. Conceptualized for this very purpose, the Billion Oyster Pavilion is made from nylon rope, steel rebars, clamps, and custom cast-concrete blocks, and will form part of a Governors Island high school’s years-long initiative to restore oyster beds in the New York Harbor.

Serving as a natural water filter, oyster beds would help vastly improve water quality. Meanwhile, the Organic Growth Pavilion also flags garbage as an epidemic while aiming to recontextualize waste as a resource. Fabricated from broken umbrellas, bicycle wheels, and old stools, it forms a series of plant-like structures in a collective canopy measuring 1,223 square feet. The canopy will be broken up and distributed to sites across the city for use as decorative chandeliers or smaller shade structures.

“The jury saw that the Billion Oyster Pavilion and Organic Growth were both incredibly interesting designs that interpret the competition brief in completely different ways,” said David Koren, executive producer of Figment, a non-profit organization that organizes the City of Dreams competition with the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter’s Emerging Architects Committee. “Perhaps we can create some really exciting dialogue around temporary architecture and sustainability.”

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