Design / Green

Suitcase Pavilion

Virginia Tech

The Suitcase Pavilion is not architecture made from suitcases; it is architecture that can be carried in suitcases. For the 2008 London Festival of Architecture, 20 Virginia Tech undergrads transported thousands of precisely machined stacking and interlocking pieces, flattened for easy packing, and assembled the Suitcase Pavilion in nine hours. For a month this clean, lightweight, structurally sound construction stood on Exhibition Road in Knightsbridge, London. As it turns out, the Suitcase Pavilion’s modules are a bit like a savvy traveler’s favorite clothes: comfortable, familiar, functional, and flexible enough to meet any occasion in style.