Lotus Blau

Lotus Blau is a shadow space: an outdoor room made to give shade and shelter in a garden. The Spanish design team built it from folded plates of weathering steel that rest lightly on the ground and lean over a still pool.

The plates bend and crease like sheets of paper, opening in some places and closing in others. Seen from the lawn they read as a chain of rusted shells floating on the water. Beneath them, tables and seats gather in a dim, shaded space where the light falls through the gaps in coloured patches.

The structure keeps a close relationship with the landscape around it. The surface of the pond doubles the folds, and the trees and grass stay in view from every seat, so the pavilion feels less like a building than a canopy placed in nature.