After creating their 2011 and 2012 graduation pavilions for SCI-Arc, Oyler Wu has once again produced a striking structure LA-based school, this time on the occasion of their 4oth anniversary. Dubbed the Storm Cloud pavilion, the structure salvages the existing steel from the 2011 Netscape,  which served as the school’s graduation pavilion two years ago. Looking at Storm Cloud, one can hardly tell it shares much of the bones that made up the older pavilion.

“Since the event is in the evening, we wanted create a canopy that has a lantern-like effect when lit, so we came up with the idea of creating funnels that we can place lighting inside of them,” said Oyler Wu principal Jenny Wu of the pavilion’s inspiration.

Though the idea was elegant, the couple was challenged by the nature of the stretch fabric itself, which didn’t lend itself to shapes other than a simple rectangle or circle. Oyler Wu overcame this challenge by adopting a “splat” strategy. “This allows us not to have to pattern it,” writes Wu. Instead of cutting uniform, predictable shapes, the pair cut waves at the bottom of the fabric and stretched over the steel structure. Wu provided a clarifying seam drawing explaining her point. The result was a dynamic shade structure that undulated at its based and stretched taut meeting the sky. Lit with colored lights at night, the pavilion was a fitting structure to emphasize the school’s experimental bent and couple’s continually surprising investigations into form.