Michael LeBlanc Speaks at Puma City Panel
Michael LeBlanc, Utile Principal, was one of five panelists invited to discuss the temporary Puma City pavilion with Ada Tolla and Guiseppe Lignano of LOT-EK, the designers of the structure. The pavilion, constructed of shipping containers painted bright red and emblazoned with the Puma logo, included a Puma retail store and a busy bar with a deck on the top floor. More than the appeal of stacked red shipping containers (shoe boxes?), the pavilion provided a thrills-a-second spatial sequence with views down into the Puma store on one stair and up into the Grey Goose-sponsored bar from another.
There was some teeth-gnashing about the relative sustainability of the pavilion, which is following the Volvo racing sail boats from port to port. As Ted Smalley Bowen commented in a recent issue of Metropolis:
“But while the designers typically revel in repurposing the stuff of industrial society—from shipping containers and oil tanks to detergent bottles—the Puma pavilion was actually purpose-built in China (where they’ve been keeping busy with several projects recently). So, wait, doesn’t the container’s newness contradict LOT-EK’s reuse tenet? Not according to the designers, who noted that they’re making use of the modules and logistics of the containerized shipping system and demonstrating the potential of container architecture.
We agree; and for us, the expressive strategy of the building (perfect for its overtly commercial function) and the rich spatial experience that was carved out of the dumb boxes was more than worth the experiment.
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