Kuori, Post Catastrophic Urban Culture
Kuori is an environmental art project initiated by Korkalo, our Helsinki based artist community. Its centre is a wooden pavilion built to function both as an environmental art piece and an art centre.
The program consists of exhibitions, performances, workshops and discussions about what is the role of culture and art in urban space during natural catastrophes and in post-catastrophic situations.
The starting point for the design is the Hexayurt, an open-source construction system originally planned to supply cheap temporary shelter at post-catastrophe sites.
Kuori is our take on this system, by which we hope to contribute to the global project.
Inspired by the modifications to the basic form proposed by Scott Davis and Dylan Toymaker, we tackled the problem of adapting the design to make it more suitable to host events and more similar to an art gallery. Our idea was to create a hub, an enclosed space from which things could expand and contaminate the space of Hauhonpuisto Park. For this reason we planned our hexayurt so that two of the six walls effectively become a large gate opening onto the outside space. During the day, when the yurt hosts events and happenings, space and activities flow freely between the hub and the park, while at night the yurt closes its doors, becoming a reassuring enclosed shelter.
The pavilion was mostly built with MDF panels kindly donated by the Museum of Finnish Architecture. Their black colour and shiny finish give Kuori a particulary slick appearance.
