HEM: A Pavilion That Transforms With Its Users

Doğukan Güngör
Nov 12, 2025
3 min read

Inspired by the blurred boundaries of spatial experience in the post-pandemic era where the lines between home and outside, personal and public, surface and boundary have grown indistinct HEM explores the notion of in-betweenness as both a physical and social condition.

Neither entirely a pavilion nor simply a seating unit; neither fully enclosed nor completely open… this state of ambiguity defines the project’s very identity and existence.

The Experience of Being In-Between

Constructed from custom-cut semi-transparent and reflective chrome mesh panels, the structure simultaneously reveals and conceals its surroundings. From inside, it opens up to the environment; from outside, it mirrors its context.

This duality reinforces the idea of “being in-between,” where visibility and reflection coexist, dissolving the boundary between the object and its environment.

Mounted on a movable rail system, the modular panels fold and slide in response to the user’s touch, allowing the structure to transform in real time. One moment, it becomes a passageway; the next, a place to rest or gather; and sometimes, a defined enclosure. This responsiveness turns HEM into a space that is not merely observed but lived and shared.

From Passage to Space

By challenging the conventional definitions of architecture, the project invites users to inhabit a space of in-betweenness.

What begins as a surface, a threshold, or a void transforms—through user interaction—into a place of social connection, rest, or contemplation.

Each configuration offers a new spatial narrative:

Passage: Acting as a threshold between two spaces.
Rest: Folding surfaces turn into simple seating.
Social Encounter: Open panels invite dialogue and gathering.
Space: When all panels close, a temporary enclosure emerges.

Structure and Materiality

The pavilion’s main structure is composed of precision-cut chrome mesh panels, chosen for their reflective quality and durability. The material allows light to pass through while creating a shimmering, semi-transparent skin that shifts with movement and light.

Designed to fully open on five sides, the structure maximizes spatial permeability and user interaction.

The custom-engineered rail system, developed specifically for the project, enables the panels to glide smoothly, creating a continuously evolving form. This mechanical adaptability allows HEM to shift between multiple spatial scenarios with minimal intervention.

Culture, Space, and Possibility

Architect Cengiz Bektaş once wrote, “A person’s struggle to make their environment possible is their culture; culture is what enables life.” This idea forms the conceptual foundation of HEM.

As an architectural proposal, it seeks to enable its context—offering a structure that is as much about transformation as it is about coexistence.

It is:

Both a passage and a pause,

Both a social space and a void,

Both a frame and a place.

It is, in essence, HEM.

Media and Communication Support

As a curatorial platform producing content on public design and temporary structures, well urban things is proud to have supported HEM's media and communication journey—sharing its story of transformation, context, and collaboration.

About the Name “HEM”

In Turkish, the word “hem” means “both” or “as well as.” It reflects the project’s dual nature — existing between two states, never entirely one or the other. HEM MEKÂN therefore translates loosely to “both space” or “space that is more than one thing.” The name captures the project’s conceptual essence: a structure that is at once open and enclosed, solid and transparent, still and in motion — a space defined by its in-betweenness.