An ornamental pavilion that shimmers with golden light designed by Carmody Groarke has opened in London, marking a new entrance to a large-scale development on the city’s Euston Road.

A sequence of tall, slender columns support a stainless steel canopy 8 metres above street level. The columns reflect sunlight during the day, transformed at night by LED lighting that illuminates the columns and the 3mm steel plate above. The glowing pavilion creates a moiré effect for passers-by, as the rows of columns align at different angles.

Anglo-Australian practice Carmody Groarke worked in colaboration with Arup on the project, exploring ways to support the canopy without any cross-bracing – the vertical elements are joined only at the top, with a decorative structural lattice. Chris Carroll of Arup explained that impact damping controls vibrations caused by wind and crowds, with hidden rods within the columns deadening vibrations and preventing resonance.

Carmody Groarke won a competition to design the pavilion, which marks the Osnaburgh Street entrance to Regent’s Place – a 13-acre, fully managed estate along London’s Euston Road that includes office, retail, leisure and public spaces. The competition was held by the non-profit organisation Architectural Foundation in 2007, with the pavilion forming part of the masterplan for Regent’s Place.

The form of the pavilion – defining the public space without completely enclosing it – echoes the colonnades of the adjacent buildings. The design was praised by Rowan Moore, ex-director of the Architectural Foundation and member of the competition jury, for its “simplicity and confidence… subtlety and richness.”

Carmody Groarke was founded by RMIT graduate Kevin Carmody and Andrew Groarke in 2006, after they both worked for David Chipperfield. The practice received Building Design’s Young Architect of the Year Award in 2007. Based in London, they have collaborated with artists Antony Gormley and Carsten Holler, and also designed the 7 July Memorial, commemorating the 2005 London bombings, which opened in Hyde Park in 2009.

www.carmodygroarke.com