Pavilion ProtoCAMPO

Designed by WALD agency

The ProtoCAMPO pavilion is an outdoor architecture consisting of a wooden structure (agora) on which an inflatable dome (cupola) rests. ProtoCAMPO takes these two archetypes of the Roman city to create a place of welcome, event, mediation and meditation at the occasion of the Villa Medici Festival des Cabanes 2022.

ProtoCAMPO was co-designed and built with the Haroun Tazieff high school in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax (France), the teachers and 44 high school students, as well as with the support of partner companies as part of the Résidence Pro educational programme developed in 2021-2022 by Villa Medici with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. This unique high school mobility programme – whose objective is to promote the professions in the vocational sectors – made it possible to welcome the 300 high school students participating in the programme to the ProtoCAMPO from 9 to 12 May 2022.

ProtoCAMPO is the third manifesto building by Frédérique Barchelard and Flavien Menu, former Fellows of Villa Medici (2019-2020). The first is the Proto-Habitat developed and built during their stay in Rome (2020), the second the SOLARproto (2021) is a 300 m2 exhibition space built in Amsterdam, and the last the ProtoCAMPO in Rome (2022). ProtoCAMPO is an outdoor architecture to meet the audience, conceived as a machine to think, exchange dialogue and imagine new ways of living.

Construction materials: wooden agora structure (maritime pine) topped by an inflatable dome (canvas).

Year of conception: 2021-2022

Dimensions: 17 x 17 x 9 metres, 300 m2

Key figures:

  • Weight of the wooden structure: 12 tons
  • Weight of the inflatable dome: 300 kg
  • Installation time of the wooden structure: 5 days
  • Dome inflation time: 40 minutes
  • Pre-assembly done by the students of the carpentry and joinery classes of the Haroun Tazieff High School in St-Paul-lès-Dax

In partnership with: LYCÉE HAROUN TAZIEFF, DITEC, SERGE FERRARI, BOLLINGER+GROHMANN, ROTHOBLASS, PEINTURESUNIKALO, JAKOB, JEUDI WANG, SCIERIE LESBATS, GROUPE THEBAULT, SETIN, DL AQUITAINE, SERGE GOACOLOU – BOIS CONSEIL

With the support of:



Image credits:
© Jeudi WANG & WALD
© WALD