This pavilion was constructed for temporary accomodation during the Festival of Writing and Ideas at Borris House in County Carlow. The design arises from the nomadic tradition of the Ottoman campaign tent. These simple post and ridge structures enabled their portability yet belied a luxurious interior fit for a sultan. The spaces were richly decorated with ornate textiles that were both structure and enclosure.

In the early 19th century, there began a fashion for creating a ‘tented room’ inside the houses of Europe’s rich and powerful. Perhaps arising from Napoleon himself as a reminder of the campaign tents of his great victories, the idea spread and was employed throughout the ensuing century. From the decorator’s cheap painted trompe l’oeuille tent to the refined silks employed by the likes of K.F. Schinkel at Charlottenburg, there was a certain alluring mystery in the inherent paradox of making a space for the outside in an interior.

Our design builds upon these two traditions. We have made a simple modern shell with clean lines and expressed structure simply built that contains within it a sumptuous tented interior lined with the beautiful red cloth provided by Mourne Textiles.