Yinka Ilori imagined a colourful pavilion structure, made of recycled materials and coloured in bright hues, that functions as an active community space.

Key features

Artist-designer Yinka Ilori was commissioned to create a permanent, site-specific installation on the banks of the Spree River in front of the Estrel Berlin Hotel Neukölln. Known for his playful, colourful interventions, Ilori imagined an architectural structure that activates the space for public use. Filtered Rays is a pavilion made of reused scaffolding and translucent conical disks derived from recycled PTFE, which form the top of the structure in a rainbow gradient. Its brightly hued beams demarcate different areas inside, arranged in a maze-like path.

When looking up, visitors will see red, burgundy, yellow and green plastic discs mediating the light and the surrounding environment. ‘When viewing architecture, audiences often look up towards the ceiling or the sky, it seems like an instinctual way to experience physical structures,’ says Yinka Ilori. ‘With Filtered Rays, I wanted to play with material, light and colour to manipulate this experience and create moments where your view of the outside is completely transformed.’ The space can be used to host yoga, meditation, dance and art workshops.

Frame’s take

Ilori’s works so strongly radiate a sense of playfulness it’s almost impossible not to appreciate them. Bright colours and whimsical forms activate the spaces he designs in a universally admirable way whether it’s the Filtered Rays installation in Berlin, a co-created kids’ play space for Lego or his own gallery-studio space in London. This democratic and celebratory approach to spatial design embodies the notion that art and design are meant to be lived in and enjoyed by all, made available to be used communally for different physical and cultural activities or just to be explored by passersby.