Ember Pavilion wins the Kyoto Biennale Prize

We are delighted that the Ember Pavilion has been awarded the Kyoto Biennale Prize for 2024. The jury praised the pavilion for treating demountability as a craft rather than a constraint, and for the collaboration between the studio and the Kyoto carpenters who charred and joined every member.

The pavilion was designed as a kit of 214 cedar components joined with wedged tenons, so that it could be taken down with a mallet and rebuilt elsewhere. It has since been re-erected in the grounds of a school in Uji, where it serves as an outdoor classroom.

Our thanks go to the Kyoto Craft Council, to the carpenters of the Shimizu workshop, and to Jonah Whitlock and the studio fabrication team who built every joint at full scale before a tree was cut.