THE CUPCAKE PAVILION

Please don't rain !

Building an outdoor cardboard cupcake pavilion in Auckland’s inclement weather was always going to be a daring move. Luckily for us a mixture of prayer and “whatever” attitude, in equal parts, somehow managed to bring out the sun for our event the “Cupcake Pavilion” during Auckland Architecture Week recently.

After establishing our studio, OH.NO.SUMO., at the beginning of the year, we became interested in an event that would involve the wider community in some sort of architectural experience. This quickly turned into a fundraising effort selling 1000 cupcakes to benefit the Starship Children’s Hospital, through the Starship Foundation.

Sponsors were sought to provide valuable support as we pushed through trying to develop a design. Eventually the architecture emerged as two intersecting double curved surfaces produced from lasercut corrugated card ribs. When combined these created small cubby hole openings for each cupcake to sit in. After rounding up volunteers and a warehouse to prefabricate in, the pavilion literally touched down outside the Britomart train station in central Auckland.

What ensued was a frenzy of hungry downtown workers; eager to get their hands on beautifully crafted gourmet cupcakes. The pavilion succeeded in selling out of the 1000 cupcakes in just 90 minutes, but more crucially it succeeded in proving that the public have an appetite for fun public architecture.

AWARDS
2009 - AAA Cavalier Bremworth Award - Open Category - Joint Winner

Thank you to our sponsors:

AMCOR KIWI PACKAGING
www.amcor.com

DELISH CUPCAKES
www.delishcupcakes.co.nz

G.B. PETTY DIEMAKERS
www.diemakers.co.nz

FABRIC STRUCTURE SYSTEMS
www.fabricstructure.co.nz

HI-Q COMPONENTS
www.hiq.co.nz

SHOW LIGHT & POWER
www.showlight.co.nz

DULUX
http://www.dulux.co.nz/