As London Design Festival’s official Lighting Partner, SEAM returns for 2018 to light up this year's Landmark Project: MultiPly.
Led by engineered-timber pioneers Waugh Thistleton Architects alongside the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), the demountable pavilion fuses modular construction with renewable material, as a possible solution in the ongoing climate crisis. The pavilion is innovatively pre-fabricated from the plentiful American tulipwood – its entire material volume re-grows across America’s forests in just 120 seconds – and is carbon-neutral.
The project stems from Waugh Thistleton’s interest in environmental preservation and social engagement, drawing spatially from traditional English pleasure gardens while exploring cross-laminated timber (CLT) with cutting-edge model-to-fabrication technology.
SEAM founding director Marci Song affirms the project’s significance: "SEAM has been part of London Design Festival since 2011, and this year’s MultiPly is one of the most ambitious Landmark Projects for our team so far. It allows us to integrate lighting within the modular concept itself, and must be prefabricated and installed within a limited timeframe.”
SEAM previously lit the 2011 festival’s Landmark Project ‘Timber Wave’ for architect AL_A, who went on to design the recent redevelopment of the museum’s historic Sackler Courtyard – where the MultiPly pavilion is now being shown.
Marci continues: "It’s always a pleasure to work with architects and artists to create engaging public artworks and landscape installations that can be enjoyed during the day and also at night, particularly for a city like London which has a culturally rich night-time economy.”
Photo by Ed Reeve.
Read more about MultiPly on the Waugh Thistleton Architects site