The Water Pavilion, or Pavillon d’Eau, is a ceramic architecture wood installation build in lake Geneva and composed of 150 handmade ceramic tiles. The pavilion is a palafitte construction which stands out of the water.
From a theoretical point of view, the pavilion makes the statement of a modern ceramic architecture folly. The installation has no primary function and the construction is apparently linked to buildings which embrace the sole purpose of decoration. However the Pavilion d’Eau adresses the complex approach of a program without a program. It questions the limits and boundaries of ceramic architecture: Are you inside the installation from the very moment you enter the water? the pavilion has no bottom, no ground: thee water is its floor.
The Pavillon d’Eau is constructed on the UNESCO Word Heritage Site of Saint-Saphorin, Switzerland.
The pavilion is a deconstructed dome standing out of the water and is oriented according to the path of the sun. The notion of pathway (parcours) is very present since the structure is approached first from above, then one turns one’s back to the Pavillon d’Eau on descent, and in order to discover it in its entirety, one has to approach it from underneath by wading into the water.
The installation is strongly liked to its site. Emerging from Lake Geneva, the exterior has a structural language, revealing the part of a cupola that is usually hidden: the scaffolding. The interior is ornamental: the porcelain tiles reflect both sunbeams and water refractions. The particular form of the tiles makes the reflected light shimmer, forming a dialogue with the waves and the alpine ridges.
The pavilion is composed of 150 handmade porcelain tiles enamelled in Bleu de Sèvres.
A total of 400 linear meters of lumber were needed for its construction; a crew of 40 volunteers participated in its elaboration. Four months of bureaucracy and research at EPFL and HEAD (Geneva) were necessary to reach a one-month production phase. The final assembly took two days.