Garden House

This year’s project continues our ongoing study on structures in both public and private spaces across different historical periods. Building upon last year’s focus on fountains, which took shape with the inflatable fountain ‘’ECHOES’’ presented at Alcova’s outdoor space, our attention has now shifted to pavilions. Throughout history, pavilions have served various purposes from housing temples and tributes of symbolic importance, to acting as mere eye-catching focal points within private gardens often referred as follies.
A common characteristic of these follies is their circular shape with a central dome and various ornaments. Drawing inspiration from these forms, reinterpreting them with a focus on clarity while also moving away from traditional materialities led us to create a pavilion of an inflatable dome. Shifting from form to function, our research also delved into modern and contemporary movements as well as current societal needs, informing the design of a versatile space for gathering, interaction and contemplation.

Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis are a duo behind the studio Objects of Common Interest, working within the realm of art, design, and architecture, blending projects in scale from objects and installations to interactive immersive environments and interior spaces. They are also founding partners of the sibling studio LOT office for architecture, and they are based between New York and Athens.

Their work has been exhibited at art and design institutions, galleries, and fairs–including solo shows at the Noguchi Museum, Etage Projects, Carwan Gallery, Architecture Biennale, and the Salone del Mobile in Milan. Their work allows various kinds of collaboration such as the partnership with Kvadrat to produce the object/installation Doric Column–Kinetic Object, and public installations such as the project Lights On, which was commissioned by Cultural Capital of Italy 2023. Objects of common interest were formed with the focus on creating still-life installations and experiential environments and objects, demonstrating a fixation with materiality, concept, and tangible spatial experiences. The work roots from an amalgamation of thinking and making between two diverse poles, Greece and New York. Objects of Common Interest were among the judges for Wallpaper* Design Awards for 2023. In the year 2022, they were named ‘Designers of the year’ and won the Wallpaper* Design award 2022. For the last two consecutive years, they have been honorees for the AD100 list 2022 of the top designers and architects and they also won the design prize 2021 for experimentation by Designboom Awards. Their work has been widely featured in the press including The Wall Street Journal, TMagazine, Wallpaper*, Elle Decor, Surface Magazine, Architectural Digest, FRAME, and PHAIDON publishers.