Salt Pavilion
Shade, water, and a floor that stays cool at 46 degrees.
A-206 · Perspective from the north-east · massing only
- Programme
- Visitor pavilion and salt-workers' rest house
- Floor area
- 180 m²
- Height to parapet
- 5.20 m
- Storeys
- 1
- Structural bays
- 6
- Status
- Built · 2021
Salt workers spend eight months on the flats with no built shade for kilometres. The brief was one structure that serves them in season and visitors the rest of the year.
The pavilion is a single deep roof on slender columns, raised 600 mm so the salt crust does not creep in. Nothing about it is sealed; the walls are jaali on three sides.
It was assembled in eleven days from parts fabricated in Ahmedabad and trucked out on two lorries.
Team
Ira Menon
Design lead
Nikita Bose
Project architect
Kalupur Metal Works
Fabrication
Agariya Heet Abhiyan
Client
Materials
Furthest: Galvanised steel frame — 126 km
How it went
- November 2020
Agariya Heet Abhiyan asked for shade that survives eight months of salt.
- January 2021
Parts fabricated in Ahmedabad, trucked out on two lorries.
- February 2021
Assembled in eleven days by six people.
- August 2026
Five-year inspection. The floor has cracked once, where we scored it.