Puddle Pavilion by i/thee Captures the Fluid Beauty of Bio-Resin in Iowa

Doğukan Güngör
Aug 28, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Sep 14, 2025

In Bondurant, Iowa, along the banks of Mud Creek, a striking new structure hovers between art and architecture: the Puddle Pavilion by experimental design practice i/thee. Made from algae-based bio-resin, the canopy was created without formwork, poured directly onto the ground and shaped by the forces of nature itself.

sarı çatısı olan 4 direkt üzerine kurulu pavilyon — Photos: Dug Rosse

The pavilion was formed through a process the designers call “Action Architecture.” During construction, resin was splattered, poured, and flung onto the ground, where it settled according to the principles of fluid dynamics—gravity, surface tension, temperature, and wind speed all playing their part. Once hardened, the resin sheet was lifted and suspended atop slender custom steel columns, floating above the creek like a frozen river in mid-motion.

The result is less an imitation and more a literal capture: not like a puddle, but a puddle—solidified and preserved in time.

With Puddle Pavilion, i/thee pursues what they call Abstract Realism: abstract in being non-figurative and open-ended, yet realist in embodying natural phenomena exactly as they occur. The piece is neither symbolic nor metaphorical—it is the direct outcome of collaboration between human intention and natural forces.

The Puddle Pavilion is the second piece in an ongoing art infrastructure masterplan designed by i/thee for the City of Bondurant. It follows The Dining Room (2024), a set of eroded rammed-earth walls, and precedes The Garden (2026), a fractal boardwalk that will meander across the site. As a canopy marking the entrance to Eagle Park, the pavilion invites visitors to pause, linger, and connect with the ecology of Mud Creek.