This newly commissioned garden installation created by  Achim Menges with Moritz Dörstelmann, Jan Knippers and Thomas Auer will open to the public later this month. 

This is the quartet’s first public commission in the UK and will explore the impact of the emerging robotic technologies on architectural design, engineering and making.

The pavilion is inspired by a lightweight construction principle that is found in nature, making. Inspired by a lightweight construction principle found in nature, the fibrous structures of the forewing shells of flying beetles known as elytra, the Pavilion will be an undulating canopy of tightly-woven carbon fibre cells created using a novel robotic production process.

As the Victoria and Albert Museum’s engineering season continues, visitors will discover that the pavilion will grow, in response to new data on structural behaviour as well as the patterns  of inhabitation of the Garden that will be captured by real-time sensors in its canopy fibres.

There will also be opportunities for the visitors to witness the pavilion’s construction live throughout the course of the season, as new cells are fabricated by a Kuka robot .

The Elytra Filament Pavilion will be available for the public to visit from the 18th May until the 16th October.