Step inside Pezo von Ellrichshausen + artist Felice Varini's illusionary outdoor room​, “Hall for Hull”

At the heart of Trinity Square in Hull, England, 16 perforated steel columns stand in a symmetrical grid directly in front of the historic Hull Minster church. Chile-based Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Swiss optical-illusion artist Felice Varini realized the installation, titled “Hall for Hull”, after they won the Hull UK City of Culture 2017 invite-only competition in August. The installation was designed to emphasize and playfully challenge the rigid symmetry of the church's facade. On display now until November 11, the installation will serve as a public event space during Hull UK City of Culture.

The temporary installation forms a roofless outdoor hypostyle “room” that creates different sensory experiences for visitors. People who step inside the perforated, 6-meter-tall columns can experience an interplay of light and shadow.

“The empty stone-paved square is challenged by the size and disposition of a regular open grid and each column (two meters wide and six meters high) is in fact an inhabitable room with a single entrance pointed to a different direction,” architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen describe.

Artist Felice Varini applied three hand-drawn motifs across the columns that distort and redefine the rigid geometry of the steel columns. Each artwork aligns from a different viewpoint across Trinity Square, so visitors are enticed to walk through the entire column grid, leaving the view of the central axis of the church’s nave untouched.