The United States Pavilion has a long tradition of mounting temporary installations in its courtyard to attract interest in both its art and architecture exhibitions. Needing to announce “The Architectural Imagination” exhibition, from the outset we understood the design of the courtyard as one of signage. 

Reflecting the diversity of Detroit and the nation, 13 columns were designed: eight serve as totems displaying The Architectural Imagination in the eight languages most commonly spoken in Detroit today, and five are truncated to provide seating. Using robotic fabrication, eight different geometries were achieved, seamlessly dissolving the fluting into a smooth cylinder before it touches the ground. Because the installation is temporary, the 10-foot-tall columns are built out of recyclable foam and coated with automotive paint to resist weathering. Their scale and language are architectural, but their material reveals their reality as signage.

In plan, the grid of columns refers to the grid of stars in the American and Detroit flags, the latter of which has 13 stars. A prime number, 13 seems to resist architecture. Thirteen columns do not make a regular grid; displacement is inevitable. But 13 is also not divisible, and thus always whole. In the courtyard, each star is its own figure with its own history, but together these figures make a new whole.

Courtyard Installation for The Architectural Imagination, the U.S. Pavilion Exhibition at the 15th International Architecture Biennale curated by Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon and organized by University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.