Canopy Pavilion showcases new technology with a place in the shade

The Canopy Pavilion uses hundreds of different interlinked panels to explore physical and mechanical properties never before employed in architecture. The structure, which now provides a shady place to meet and relax on EPFL's main campus, is the result of a joint effort between two EPFL labs: the Geometric Computing Laboratory (GCM) and the Laboratory for Collective and Active Imagination with Space (ALICE). "Let's meet up at the Canopy at solar noon on the summer solstice!" This may sound like an invitation for astronomy majors, since that's the moment when the compression pole supporting this metallic mesh structure will be perfectly aligned with the sun. But it's just one of the possible ways that friends will invite each other to get together under the campus's new Canopy Pavilion. "The Canopy is made from 628 aluminum panels, which form intriguing patterns of shade and sunlight throughout the year - much like the leaves of a tree," says Mark Pauly, who heads the GCM. He developed the algorithms that were used to generate the unique shapes of each panel. "While all the panels are different, the mechanism connecting them is the same.