In architecture, a pavilion (from French pavilion, from Latin papilio) has several meanings. In architectural terms, it refers to a secondary building, that is either a standalone building or an attached part of a main building, generally an open structure. Etymologically, “Pavilion” has its roots in the French papillon (butterfly), alluding to a winged form, but also connoting a gaudy, ephemeral entity. A Pavilion is a flexible open architectural space where people come and interact, often a part of a main building and can be freestanding or permanent in nature. It is usually larger than human scale giving it the ability to provide a more experimental enclosure to its visitors. As simple as they as seem, pavilions are the apex of creative implementation intersecting between art and form building in physical world.

Pavilions is an intersection of design liberty blending with architecture that gives its designer a very flexible medium to leverage 3D spaces to express their ideas. Despite the variations in scale and their temporal existence, they have an exceptional quality to be an architectural example which is understood by a massive range of audiences with ease. The form of a pavilion is freer to adapt to its inspiration in comparison to architecture that we see around us. It can have a lot of functions like a shelter/podium/entrance porch and many such uses. It can be permanent or temporary depending on its functional requirements. Terra x Terra is a challenge focussed on creating an architectural marvel that speaks for a more sustainable built environment for our coming generations.

Pavilion designs are generally seen across the world to develop mostly technology-oriented designs that are alien to the space they are installed in. In the era of globalization, where almost every city in the world strives to look the same - A pavilion can be the most feasible ways to experiment regionalism in civic life. Most large scaled buildings while framing the city do not lean into the public life, a pavilion has the exact scale to tingle the human scale - while negotiating for better architecture design in the spaces they are built in. In 2021, how can this new sense of building regionally sustainable pavilions materialize into a rational architecture solution that can be deployed across various sites for tailor made functions they serve?