I spoke with Hans-Ulrich Obrist at this summer’s opening of the Serpentine Pavilion. I began by asking him what conversation he wants to start with the new Summer Houses. Does entering further into Kensington Gardens, away from the perimeters of Serpentine Galleries, change the mindset of how the gallery operates in the public realm?

“It’s very important not to have barriers, for things to be free, not to deal with threshold,” says Obrist of the move into the park. “We all have a first encounter with art and I didn’t come from a family where art was really present, but then I saw things by chance. Because of an amazing museum in Zurich which has some many amazing Giacomettis, I encountered Giacometti at the age of 12 and went from there.” Obrist notes that Yona Friedman, one of the architects to take part in the Summer House exhibition, typifies the thrust of where he saw the interaction between public space and exhibition. “We have Yona So, constraints for architects can be seen as a good thing.Friedman here who is now in his 90s,” continues Obrist. “It was in 1958 that Friedman came up with his idea for mobile architecture and was talking about this idea of freedom, to give the user freedom, to allow the person to get in contact with architecture, not to impose anything…”

Does the Serpentine Galleries have an ambition to work further and further into the park in the coming years? “This is of course all very much connected to the permits that we have, the possibilities that we have, it's very precise where we can go,” explains Obrist. “The constraints can be great, and I think the same thing is true for architecture because, it’s kind of interesting. I always wondered why countries like Chile or Japan or Switzerland, which are relatively small countries, have quite extraordinary architecture scenes, and I thought it has quite a lot to do with constraints, because there are the mountains, there are lots on inhospitable ground, in the case of Japan and Chile you have the mountains and the sea... So, constraints for architects can be seen as a good thing.”

The restraint that the curatorial team placed on the architects for the Summer Houses was to design a 25 square meter summer house in response to Queen Caroline’s Temple—the original summer house adjacent to the Serpentine Gallery, designed by William Kent in 1734-35.

“We wanted to experiment more, and we wanted to basically do something in relation to history, to the context. Because what is happening here is always in connection with the building of the Serpentine and to Kensington Gardens,” explains Obrist. “The story of Kensington Gardens is such a fascinating story because when Queen Caroline There are memories of the previous pavilions, and they look very carefully at what all the others have done, but with the spirit of experimentation.commissioned it in the 18th century she was surrounded by a salon, with artists, poets and architects. Julia [Peyton-Jones, Serpentine's co-director] and I thought, lovingly, that it could be that the future is sparked by fragments of the past, and that’s kind of what happened.”

We return to discussing the constraints of architecture, and the potential weight of contemporary pressures of architecture lineage in curation when it comes to the 'traditional’ pavilion space in front of the Serpentine Galleries. “I’m not an architect, but architects tell me that constraints are rather stimulating," states Obrist. “I think that architects are highly and astutely aware of what has happened so far on this patch of land. There are memories of the previous pavilions, and they look very carefully at what all the others have done, but with the spirit of experimentation.”

The memory of Zaha Hadid had been invoked many times during the House's opening, both by Obrist and by Julia Peyton-Jones, the outgoing Co-Director of the Serpentine Galleries, instigator of the pavilion programme 25 years ago. “I wanted to mention the memory of Zaha Hadid,” Obrist responds. “It’s very important to remember how important she is in absolute terms, which of course she is, such a very important historic figure, but also how important she has been for the Serpentine as a trustee for almost 20 years.” 

What does the pavilion programme at the Serpentine Galleries owe to Hadid? “I think, as the architect for the first pavilion, she started this really,” says Obrist. "But more than just legacy: in another way, there is a continued mantra because she always told us: ‘there should be no end to experimentation.'”

And what of Peyton-Jones? “It’s a 20-year friendship but of course, a friendship that will never stop,” smiles Obrist. Responding to a question about the future of Serpentine Pavilions or Summer Houses, he instead subverts a quote from artists Gilbert and George: “‘To be with art is all we ask’, so today we say ‘to be with architecture is all we ask’.”