The Pavilion, a new digital space created by Ross Gardam to exhibit the brand’s expanding portfolio. Visualisations by Mr.P Studios.

Visualisations by Mr.P Studios.

Visualisation by Mr.P Studios.

Step into the Ross Gardam universe. The Melbourne-based industrial designer has created the Pavilion, a digital space to exhibit his brand’s expanding portfolio of furniture and lighting. Set amongst the dense Australian bushland, the imagined space exists between the physical and digital, offering an open-ended exploration of the nature of beings, objects and place—and how they all connect.

Created in tandem with Melbourne-based digital agency Mr. P, the Pavilion enables people to transport themselves to a spatial experience that defies time and place, showcasing an array of original ideas that question convention. Expanding on the digital space, the Pavilion can also be a vehicle to collaborate with other creatives as the brand releases new collections annually.

The inspiration behind the Pavilion stems from Gardam’s long-standing fascination with brutalist architecture. In particular, the honesty and monolithic sense of grandeur. “I am always enamoured by brutalist structures, the volume and scale of what typically is a singular gesture in form,” Ross explains. “This informed many of my products and was an easy choice as a point of inspiration for the Pavilion.”

Visualisations by Mr.P Studios.

Visualisations by Mr.P Studios.

Visualisations by Mr.P Studios.

The façade is open, expansive and inviting, drawing focus first to the curved entry, followed by the beams which compel people to continue through the interior until arriving at the internal courtyard of the atrium. The atrium, in turn, transitions to the Australian bushland outside. Emphasis was put on minimalism, using concrete in situ as the base material. Creating contrast was vital, as seen in the curved roof detail, which softened the walls and beams leading to the atrium. To establish an intuitive sense of flow, the horizontal planes, beams and external uprights were secured via a physical cut-out of the façade for the beams to sit. Each element seamlessly locks together through this singular interaction—ultimately unifying the building.

As a space providing scale and form for staging Gardam’s designs, careful consideration was given to curating the furniture and lighting inside—including the journey to discover them. This reflects Gardam’s belief that objects are not meant to exist in isolation but rather in relation to ourselves and our surroundings. To this end, the interior consists of four rooms with interconnected views to one another, as well as the internal courtyard and the exterior. This simultaneous view of each adjacent space adds to the intrigue, triggering curiosity for people to explore the entire interior, leading out to the Australian landscape.

Intrinsic to the architecture of the Pavilion was the idea of incorporating nature, both outside and inside, as part of the narrative. The external environment reveals the location as unmistakably Australian—with eucalyptus trees, native ferns and other foliage surrounding the exterior and providing unique portals from the oversized apertures of the Pavilion.

The limited edition Hemera Table Lamp, available in deep green. Photo by Haydn Cattach.

Photo by Haydn Cattach.

Photo by Haydn Cattach.

Photo by Haydn Cattach.

The building has been photographed at various intervals throughout the day, allowing people to experience subtle nuances in the play of light on Gardam’s furniture and lamps in situ. In doing so, this displays the sculptural appeal of the lamps during the day when switched off and the various moods and types of light they emit in the evening when illuminated. The internal images were taken early in the morning when fog engulfed the Pavilion. External ones were captured in the full afternoon sun, followed by more intimate lighting in photos taken at dusk.

Alongside the Pavilion, Ross releases a limited edition of the Hemera Table Lamp made from a signature Accorsi-honed marble in a deep green. Powerful in its simplicity of form, the apt release of only three pieces is inspired by brutalist architecture. The two solid circular volumes intersect with no overtly visible light source, creating a striking desktop monolith and a lighting device of refined functionality. Hemera Accorsi is a collaboration with New Volumes.

To find out more about the Pavilion and to see it in action, head to Ross Gardam’s new website.