The Houston Pavilion represented the City of Houston as one of 32 international cities invited to participate in the 8th Annual, China International Garden Expo in Chongqing, China. The showcase’s theme, “Better Garden, Better City”, promoted the harmony between landscape and built spaces.
Inspired by Houston’s location on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico, the design for the Pavilion reinterpreted and engaged visitors in a celebration of the marriage of water, land, and sky. An embossed concrete wall bounded the Pavilion and was inflected to allow entry and to retain an earthen hill, intended to mimic the topography of a Houston bayou. Visitors moved along a path guided by a water course that winds between the perimeter wall and the hillside. The path was further defined by a trellised canopy to provide shade and to refer to the natural tree canopy of a typical bayou landscape. After a visitor had finished touring the Houston pavilion, it was hoped that he or she was left with a sense of Houston as a modern city that was understood, enriched, and defined by its built and natural landscapes.
The design was created in partnership with SWA Group.