Nasimsadat Razavian
Public Building
Wall of Happiness
Wall of Happiness is a steel mesh pavilion, a public intervention designed to be located on the water front in Istanbul.
The intention was to create a space that brings happiness to the citizens through the process of psychological restoration. The location is chosen in the chaotic urban part of the city to challenge the necessity of escaping from the city to achieve psychological restoration. The project works as a filter for pedestrians coming out of transportation hubs by making a specific spatial experience. Through integrating the natural elements of the surrounding in the architectural space and creating a playground on water and land, the pavilion activates the process of relaxation and it distracts the citizens from the routine of their daily lives.
The wall creates a playground, an environmental exploration lab that seeks for the happiness of its users. It creates an invisible border between the seemingly contradictory elements of its environment to start the dialogue about this border but it immediately challenges the existence of a defined border with its blurry appearance. By creating a playground inside this wall it ironically talks about the fragileness and narrowness of such a border and through creating frames of the surrounding it reminds us of the things that are there yet we don’t see.