AR-MA’s pavilion Trifolium (2014), designed and built for the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation’s (SCAF) annual competition Fugitive Structures, uses advanced computer design technologies to fulfil a research-oriented brief. AR-MA’s answer was a three-leaved structure featuring a thermally-formed and robotically-trimmed, self-supporting Corian exterior envelope with 152 black, mirror-polished Rimex interior panels. The two surfaces were connected with 452 unique stainless steel brackets, each fabricated to be self-jigging during the welding process.

Conceived as a fluid, continuous event space, the internal space of the pavilion has the flexibility to be used as a meeting place or an auditorium, whilst the three leaves divide the external courtyard into a series of smaller, more intimate spaces. The reflectivity of the interior surfaces provides the connection between inside and out, reflecting the surrounding courtyard in a myriad of views.