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EXPO[SÉ]: S.F. Expo 2020 Transit Ferry Terminal

Part 1 Project 2012
Brook [T.J.] Lin
Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) | UK
In 2020 Silicon Valley had hoped to hold an International Exposition, which would have been the third such event in the San Francisco area’s lifetime. The Bay Area is now investigating an application for Expo 2025.

An international event series held in the interest of promoting national assets; technological, cultural and economic, the built construct of the Expo has historically provided a playground for architectural innovation; the individual pavilions of the fair exemplars of experimental and speculative systems for the built environment. The fair exists in a dichotomy - temporary pavilions embody proposals for lasting progression, bringing into question the notion of the event, and its legacy.

In response to the sudden surge in demand on the city’s transportation infrastructure, the project proposes a Ferry Terminal for the anticipated Silicon Valley Expo 2020, serving visitors travelling from the east coast of the Bay Area to the proposed site in Moffett Federal Airfield. The building experiences two conditions; providing temporary pavilions and a semi-permanent landscape for tourists in the spirit of the fair during the 6 month Expo period, woven throughout a permanent ferry terminal, a lasting intervention in the city following the events closure. Each temporary pavilion responds to the influx of passengers, gradually transforming and eventually disassembling as the event draws to a close - the inevitable temporality of the event intrinsic to way people engage with it and its materiality.

Driven by experimentation with plentiful and easily attainable short-lifespan materials, such as cardboard and paper, and playful interpretations of temporary construction techniques, the building proposes an alternative to the wasteful and inefficient use of unsustainable materials typical of the Expo. Its considered breakdown into component parts begins a process of reassembly and re-application for the sites post-Expo life as the momentary hysteria of the event passes and the building settles into the urban fabric of San Francisco.

Brook [T.J.] Lin

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2012
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