Revuelo (2012)

Temporary Architecture Installation by Vladimir García and Doel Fresse

On display from February through June 2012

Site assembly by the designers and a team of around 50 volunteers.

Revuelo was the winning proposal for the Temporary Gallery Space, a juried design competition organized by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the National Gallery of Puerto Rico in 2010. The competition's main goal was to group emerging architects and designers around a project that could promote a dialog between art and architecture. Nearly forty participants submitted a total of seventeen proposals for the competition. Ada Tolla, principal of Lo-Tek and Jerry Van Eyck, former partner of West 8 and now principal of Melk! Studio served as invited jurors along with Darianne Ochoa, local architect and representative of the Institute.

Idea
At the core of the project is a 450-kite-canopy installed over the 8,000 square feet central courtyard of the National Gallery. This spatial articulation system rewrites the space bounded by the sober, neoclassical facades of the museum, overtaking the space with a ludic ambiance transforming the courtyard into a large-scale playground for both kids and adults.

Using a contextual approach that incorporates an easily recognizable pop culture referent&mdashGayla Kites typically flown in family outings nearby&mdashthe canopy modulates the central courtyard by reinforcing and articulating the open sky above through chromatic contrast, its continuous movements rendering air movements, sounds, lights and shadows as visible, live characters of the space.

The final built project consisted of three main programmatic components:

1. A translucent, permeable 450-kite canopy
2. A solid projection screen made of reused strips of banner fabric
3. An array of moveable floor pillows also made of reused banner fabric 

Ballajá at Night

Annaité Vacaro

Green Roof, Ballajá

Toro Arquitectos, Signage Jardín Botánico

Revuelo, installation process,

Vladimir García, Doel Fresse