Uncertain memories by One Take Architects

Uncertain Memories is a temporary pavilion designed by One Take Architects with artist Zhu Jianfei, commissioned by curator artcare for the 2017 Banana Music Carnival at Shanghai Expo Park on the Huangpu River. The park, originally laid out for the 2010 World Expo and next to the Mercedes-Benz Arena and Expo shopping district, is usually empty and windswept, lacking vitality. Because construction time was only seven days and the pavilion had to be dismantled and toured after the exhibition, the team used a steel-section hanging system common in pipework: prefabricated three-dimensional steel sections and bolts alone assemble it, and it can be rapidly dismantled and recycled. Based on the main members of two combined installations, the structural module is set at 750 millimeters to save material while keeping a suitable volume. As more projects rely on digital tools and complex construction, large urban buildings often directly reproduce standard techniques; once widespread, originally poetic technical forms lose their tectonic power. Uncertain Memories therefore uses basic tools and materials to challenge over-reliance on technology. Vertically offset, transparent polycarbonate sheets form the facade, softening daylight and layering shadows; inside, the structure is purely linear, and an inner layer of polycarbonate pulled away from the outer skin creates a composite interface that modulates transparency while preserving the material's residual clarity. By day, strong reflection makes the sheets themselves the object of sight, and more than twelve kilometers of thread inside tremble in the wind, grading through four colors in daylight and acting as a semi-transparent filter that slows the eye's rush inward. At night, an interactive lighting program by artist Zhu Jianfei changes the thread colors in response to visitors' positions, and light refracted through the composite interface produces dramatic color shifts. The polycarbonate captures and blurs the activities on both sides like a shadow puppet show, and the soft threads constrain walking to a single clear path. More than 60,000 people visited Uncertain Memories and its companion Echo during the carnival, and the pavilion became a favorite photo spot.