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First photos of Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies' 2024 Serpentine Pavilion

2024-06-05T13:15:00-04:00

London's annual Serpentine Pavilion is gearing up for its grand opening on Friday with a first preview of this year's completed design by Korean architect Minsuk Cho.

Envisioned together with his Seoul-based firm Mass Studies, the 23rd annual summer pavilion, titled Archipelagic Void, departs from the tradition of a single-structure installation and is, instead, comprised of five thematic 'islands' arranged around a central void, inspired by traditional Korean madang courtyards.

Serpentine Pavilion 2024, Archipelagic Void, designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies © Mass Studies Photo: Iwan Baan Courtesy: Serpentine

Acting as the main pavilion entry, the Gallery will feature a six-channel sound installation envisioned by musician and composer Jang Young-Gyu, presenting The Willow <버들은> during the summer months and Moonlight <월정명> in the fall.

Serpentine Pavilion 2024, Archipelagic Void, designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies © Mass Studies Photo: Iwan Baan Courtesy: Serpentine

Located in th...

South Korean architect Minsuk Cho and Mass Studies will design the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion

2024-01-22T13:13:00-05:00

South Korean architect Minsuk Cho has been announced as the designer of the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion commission in London. The Mass Studies founder debuted preliminary renders of their winning design this morning ahead of the exhibition’s June opening. His team's entry will appear as a star-like hub of activity to visitors, harkening them into experiencing a variety of communal spaces they say have resulted from a careful study of its past predecessors.

For the 23rd overall edition of the Serpentine Pavilion, a constellation of smaller structures will form around a central void space inspired by the vernacular Madang courtyard features found in small residential structures across Korea. Each of these five separate spaces will have a name and programmatic function while doubling as “content machines” and devised to montage with the corresponding flexible open areas and park surrounding the pavilion.

Serpentine Pavilion 2024 designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies. Design render, exteri...

Here’s what the critics had to say about Lina Ghotmeh's Serpentine Pavilion

2023-06-17T04:00:00-04:00

Reactions in the UK are pouring in after the opening week of Lina Ghotmeh's 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens.

The annual installation’s 22nd overall edition features the Lebanese-born Parisian designers palm leaf-shaped timber À table pavilion, which encases a café and communal dining table that references Malian Toguna huts while "inviting us to convene, sit down, think, share, and celebrate exchanges."

Oliver Wainwright got the press’ first crack on June 5, calling it a “symphony of timber” and “one of the most modest, low-lying pavilions of the programme so far" before complimenting its delicate site-responsiveness and the apparent lightness of its materials. “From the aerial vantage point of a drone, it is an elegant sight. It floats like a paper parasol, unfurled in a clearing between the trees, its sharply creased zigzag roof making it look as if it could be folded up and carried off at any minute,” he wrote. “It conjures all the metaphors of palm leave...

Lina Ghotmeh's 2023 Serpentine Pavilion serves the community an invitation to 'dwell together'

2023-06-07T03:00:00-04:00

Lina Ghotmeh’s 2023 Serpentine Pavilion design makes its official debut this week in London. For the 22nd contribution to the summer pavilion series, the Lebanese-born and Paris-based architect showcases a design that highlights aspirations towards community gathering in a manner that speaks to the importance of building relationships while "inviting us to convene, sit down, think, share, and celebrate exchanges."

The design for À table (whose name in French means to call and invite those to sit together for conversation and a meal) is a lightweight, pleated canopy roof that references the structure of a palm leaf. The design of the space aims to "respond to the surrounding tree canopies," while the internal wooden beans are meant to "emerge as thin tree trunks" encompassing the pavilion. The detailed, plant-like cut-out patterns of the panels assist in providing natural light and ventilation in the pavilion as it surrounds a concentric series of tables that sit within the pavilion...

A first look at the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Lina Ghotmeh

2022-11-23T11:46:00-05:00

Lebanese-born architect Lina Ghotmeh has been selected as the architect for the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London. The Paris-based architect will be the 22nd designer of a Serpentine Pavilion, an annual event that began with Zaha Hadid’s commission in 2000.

Ghotmeh’s work sits at the intersection of architecture, art, and design, with particular consideration given to social conditions, environments, and materials. Her approach, therefore, includes a thorough research of location history, typologies, materials, resources, and user habits.

The 2023 Serpentine Pavilion will be titled À table, inspired by the French call to sit together at a table. Ghotmeh’s design will seek to achieve a sense of unity through its form, while an “organic” table and seating formation inside will invite human interaction.

Serpentine Pavilion 2023 designed by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture. Photo © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture. Courtesy of Serpentine

“À table is an invitation to dwell together, in the same ...

'A bit too slick': What the critics are saying about Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion debut

2022-06-08T15:38:00-04:00

Theaster Gates’ hotly-anticipated debut as the first non-architect to win the Serpentine Pavilion commission has been causing quite a buzz online since premiering for the press yesterday in London’s historic Kensington Gardens.

The installation has thus far been received domestically as a mostly disappointing premiere, garnering two-star reviews in both The Times and Evening Standard, which labeled the effort “simple to the point of simplistic.”

“The vertical spruce planks ringing the exterior feel more like a garden fence than a dado, for instance,” critic Robert Bevan described. “But the strangest decision has been to insert a full-height vertical plank partition, which divides the main space, rendering the circular volume unreadable.”

Previously on Archinect: Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion opens as a shrine to community building and sacred practices

Architects’ Journal editor Rob Wilson picked out the limitations of the design, stating that, in his view, “it feels like the...

Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion opens as a shrine to community building and sacred practices

2022-06-07T13:53:00-04:00

Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion has been revealed in London's Kensington Gardens, showcasing his vision for a Black Chapel that advances the fair's evangelizing mission to be an incubator for community building, civic culture, and public engagement.

In a circular form evoking several architectural traditions and cultures, including traditional African structures and Hungarian round churches, the pavilion is rendered in the same stark-looking black tar color as the suite of 14 new paintings Gates executed for the exhibition, providing an additional reference to the meditative elements present in Houston's Rothko Chapel, which the 48-year-old artist credited as an additional source of design inspiration.

Gates conceives of his pavilion as “a site for contemplation and convening” where gatherers are hailed together artistically in remembrance of lost places of “spiritual communion” that populate urban areas like London and his hometown of Chicago. It was executed with design help...

A first look at the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Theaster Gates

2022-02-03T10:47:00-05:00

The first details for the design of the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion have been released. Designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, and titled Black Chapel, the scheme draws inspiration from the industrial kilns of the English midlands, resulting in a cylindrical wooden structure with a punctured dome roof.

Designed in collaboration with Adjaye Associates, the pavilion is intended to be a “place of quietude” in the aftermath of COVID-19, with a programme of concerts and events including a performance by Gates and his band, the Black Monks. Gates describes the pavilion as a “chapel for new music” including ““Gospel, alt-jazz, avant garde sounds, the history of British black music, Gregorian and Benedictine chants – all the things me and my band are into.”

Architecturally, the 36-foo...

This year's Serpentine Pavilion, inspired by London's immigrant gathering spaces, opens a year later than planned

2021-06-10T18:41:00-04:00

The latest iteration of the Serpentine Pavilion is now open in London after more than a year of COVID-related delays.

South African studio Counterspace had to wait 10 months to present its final design after being named to the commission in February of 2020.

Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace, Exterior View © Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan

The women-led team completed the commission's 20th Pavilion using repurposed materials including wine corks, steel, and cement leftover from marble production. This culminated in a carbon-negative building six meters in height that brought together elements from the city’s disparate migrant enclaves in an amalgam of typologies meant to articulate different scales of intimacy, according to Counterspace’s founder Sumayya Vally.

Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace, Interior View © Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan

To gain perspective for the structure, Vally spent four months in the city looking for gathering spaces that typifi...

Theaster Gates to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion

2021-05-18T17:34:00-04:00

Artist and urban planner Theaster Gates has been selected to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion. This will be the first time that the Serpentine Gallery has awarded this commission to a non-architect. Gates is currently a professor at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. Utilizing his background in urban planning, his work focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture, and performance, integrating sound, motion, Black history, and architectural features.

His most famous work, the ongoing Dorchester Projects, began in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis when Gates bought a number of rundown properties on Chicago’s South Side, where he grew up and currently lives. In collaboration with architects and designers, he converted these derelict buildings into community centers and cultural institutions. He also repurposed the scrap within these sites as art and injected the money made back into the neighborhood. Projects include the Archive House, for...

Serpentine will not host a pavilion this year due to COVID-19

2020-04-24T12:39:00-04:00

For the first time since the annual program was founded, Serpentine Galleries will not host the 2020 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace this summer. The commission has now been extended into a two-year endeavor in which the practice will collaborate with the Serpentine on a series of off-site and online research projects through the rest of this year. The culmination of this new project will resolve with the opening of the Pavilion in the summer of 2021.

Sir David Adjaye, a Serpentine Galleries trustee and Serpentine Pavilion Advisor said, "The global COVID-19 crisis has changed the immediate context. Rather than rush to execute Counterspace's stellar design as soon as it is safe to do so, the Serpentine has chosen to accept the slowness reshaping society today and utilize it to develop a deeper relationship with the architects."

Amina Kaskar, Sumayya Vally and Sarah de Villiers of Counterspace. Photographed by Justice Mukheli in Johannesburg, 2...

All-woman team Counterspace to design 2020 Serpentine Pavilion

2020-02-10T14:32:00-05:00

Amina Kaskar, Sumayya Vally, and Sarah de Villiers, who form the Johannesburg-based architectural studio Counterspace, have been commissioned to design the 2020 Serpentine Pavilion. All born in 1990, the trio are the youngest architects to design the Serpentine Gallery's iconic pavilion in its 20-year history. Founded in 2015, Counterspace's work focuses on research and interdisciplinary arts-based projects, with an emphasis on architectural projects and community engagement.

Amina Kaskar, Sumayya Vally and Sarah de Villiers of Counterspace. Photographed by Justice Mukheli in Johannesburg, 2020. © Counterspace.

Counterspace's concept for the Serpentine reflects their focus on inclusivity. Combining traditional and innovative building techniques, their design is a poetic interpretation of the gathering, community-oriented spaces around London.

The shapes of the pavilion are “created from a process of addition, superimposition, subtraction, and splicing of architectural forms, direct...

Serpentine Galleries chief resigns as art world confronts dirty money

2019-06-20T14:45:00-04:00

The head of the Serpentine Galleries has resigned after the Guardian revealed she is the co-owner of an Israeli cyberweapons company whose software has allegedly been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on dissidents. On Tuesday, Yana Peel announced she was stepping down as the chief executive of the prestigious London art gallery so the work of the Serpentine would not be undermined by what she called “misguided personal attacks on me and my family”.

Announcing her unexpected departure from the Serpentine Galleries in a statement, Yana Peel said, “I have decided I am better able to continue my work in supporting the arts, the advancement of human rights, and freedom of expression by moving away from my current role.”

Peel added, “The work of the Serpentine – and its incomparable artistic director – cannot be allowed to be undermined by misguided personal attacks on me and my family."

Issuing a warning to her peers, Peel added finally, “If campaigns of this type continue, the treasures of the art community – which are so fundamental to our society – risk an erosion of private support. That will be a great loss for everyone."

Peel's resignation comes as the art world begins to take stock of its dependence on unethical funding, board members with questionable business ties, and other problematic sources of income and support for its survival.

The Whitney Museum has received criticism for its ties to the unethical business practic...

Oliver Wainwright on rethinking the Serpentine Pavilion

2019-06-18T15:49:00-04:00

Ishigami’s structure is a striking object, but it could have been so much better, and it is a frustrating outcome in what has been a troubled year for the Serpentine. [...] After almost 20 years of commissioning novelty structures to host summer parties for sponsors, it feels like the format could do with a rethink and look beyond the bounds of the gallery’s garden, and the collectors’ estates where the structures end up.

A few days before the opening of the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, Oliver Wainwright of The Guardian wrote a piece calling for the Serpentine Galleries to consider rethinking the format of the yearly Serpentine Pavilion program (like appointing the architects earlier, for starters). It's been a rough year wrought with controversy for the Serpentine — from Junya Ishigami's practice being criticized for employing unpaid interns, to the troubles of working with a tight construction schedule for highly conceptual pavilion designs (and it shows in this year's pavilion), to the sudden resignation of the gallery's CEO Yana Peel.

First photos of Junya Ishigami's 2019 Serpentine Pavilion ahead of this week's opening

2019-06-18T13:13:00-04:00

A flowing canopy roof of slates has emerged in recent weeks in the pristine gardens of London's Serpentine Galleries. Supported by a forest of superslim columns, the cavernous space will begin welcoming guests this week as the galleries' 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami.

"My design for the Pavilion plays with our perspectives of the built environment against the backdrop of a natural landscape, emphasizing a natural and organic feel as though it had grown out of the lawn, resembling a hill made out of rocks," Ishigami said describing his design.

"This is an attempt to supplement traditional architecture with modern methodologies and concepts, to create in this place an expanse of scenery like never seen before. Possessing the weighty presence of slate roofs seen around the world, and simultaneously appearing so light it could blow aw...

Junya Ishigami's lecture at MIT cancelled following revelations of unpaid internships at his eponymous firm

2019-04-24T18:03:00-04:00

A lecture at MIT that was to be given by the Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has been cancelled following revelations that Ishigami's Tokyo-based studio was relying on unpaid interns—a controversy that has prompted wide discussion and raised questions over the value of labor in architecture.

Students and faculty at MIT were hoping his lecture could become an opportunity to engage with these issues, asking his office if they could host a separate discussion on labor practices during his visit. However, the firm declined to participate while also requesting a guarantee for no Q&A and a restriction of discussion on the issue.

After news that the 44-year-old was selected to design the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, an email from Junya Ishigami+Associates listing conditions for an intern was made public by Adam Nathaniel Furman. Causing an uproar, the terms set out in the e-mail showed that the firm expected young architects to work 13-hour days, six days a week for free; supply their own...

SelgasCano's 2015 Serpentine Pavilion is coming to LA this summer

2019-04-24T16:25:00-04:00

After a successful run in London's Hyde Park back in 2015, SelgasCano's' rainbow-tunnel Serpentine Pavilion is making its way to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles starting June 28. London-based Second Home teamed up with the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County to bring out the installation, which will host a series of free public events exploring art, design, science, and nature.

Serpentine Pavilion designed by SelgasCano 2015. Photo: Iwan Baan

Set to be built at the park adjacent to the tourist hot-spot La Brea Tar Pits museum, the 866-square-foot pavilion will be a polygonal structure covered in a multi-colored, translucent fabric membrane that will create an immersive, stained-glass environment.

Serpentine Pavilion designed by SelgasCano 2015. Photo: Iwan Baan

Visitors can enter and exit at multiple points to experience the structure's interior in various ways “characterized by color, light and irregular shapes with surprising volumes,” SelgasCano previously described....

2019 Serpentine Pavilion architect Junya Ishigami draws criticism for unpaid internships in Japan

2019-03-22T16:01:00-04:00

A few weeks after being commissioned to design the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, Junya Ishigami + Associates and the Serpentine Galleries are now under fire after it emerged that the big-name firm uses unpaid interns in Japan, the Architects' Journal reported today.

An email sent by Junya Ishigami + Associates in response to a student seeking an internship opportunity lists a set of “conditions”, which include unpaid interns having to provide their own software and computer equipment, and working Monday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight for a period of at least 8-12 weeks. Artist/designer Adam Nathaniel Furman tweeted a screenshot of the email last week...

Though controversial in the UK, unpaid internships are still common practice in Japan. Before opening his own practice, Ishigami worked for SANAA — who has also been criticized in the past for not paying their interns — until 2004.

According to the Architects' Journal, the Serpentine Gallery said “it was not aware the practice used ...

Japanese architect Junya Ishigami announces plans for design of 2019 Serpentine pavilion

2019-02-14T13:40:00-05:00

Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, known for his experimental works that blend nature and fantasy, has been tapped by the Serpentine Gallery to design their popular summer attraction, the Serpentine Pavilion. The highly sought-after commission follows the success of previous iterations by rising stars in the world of architecture, Frida Escobedo (2018) and Diébédo Francis Kéré (2017).

Junya Ishigami, KAIT Workshop, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Japan, 2008 © Junya Ishigami + Associates

At 44, Ishigami, who worked at SANAA before starting his own practice, has amassed a unique body of work. In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale for his installation “Architecture as Air," praised by the jury for pushing the "limits of materiality, visibility, tectonics, thinness, and ultimately of architecture itself.” Described by Oliver Wainwright as a magician of materials, Ishigami's gift for creating unfeasibly light structures is obvious in o...

The Bjarke Ingels-designed 2016 Serpentine Pavilion makes an appearance in Toronto before traveling further

2018-10-17T18:01:00-04:00

[...] the 2016 Unzipped pavilion by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels was acquired by a wealthy collector: the Canadian developer Ian Gillespie, whose company Westbank was a sponsor of the London presentation. Last month, the shape-shifting 14-metre-high, 27-metre-long installation made the move to inner city Toronto, where it was unveiled on the site of the architect’s next commission for Westbank, a massively ambitious housing complex on King Street West.

Another member of the growing family of the Serpentine Galleries' annual summer pavilions has found a new home: the Bjarke Ingels-designed Unzipped pavilion — famously praised by The Guardian's architecture critic Oliver Wainwright as "possibly the Serpentine’s most impressive pavilion yet" when it opened in June 2016 — was recently unveiled to the public on a site in Toronto where BIG's mountain-shaped King Street condo building will rise soon.

View this post on Instagram Open till midnight tonight with live music. . . . . #unzippedtoronto #nbTO18 #architecture #toronto #exhibition #design
A post shared by Westbank (@westbankcorp) on Sep 29, 2018 at 9:48am PDT

The pavilion won't stick around for too long though and is scheduled to travel to other international cities before reaching its final, permanent site in Vancouver.

A rendering of the pavilion's final destination in Vancouver. Credit: Westbank.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the 2018 Serpentine Pav...

Frida Escobedo's Serpentine Pavilion sold to spa company Therme

2018-10-09T13:26:00-04:00

The [pavilion] will now be displayed in ‘selected locations’ as part of the Therme Art Program, which was set up to fulfill artistic and architectural ’visions that cannot be realised in galleries or museum spaces: no matter how complex their production, installation and long-term maintenance may be’. Serpentine Galleries chief executive Yana Peel and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist said in a joint statement that they were ‘delighted’ by the purchase.

2018 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, is unveiled ahead of Friday's opening

2018-06-11T15:45:00-04:00

In an interview with the Guardian earlier this month, Mexican architect, and this year's designer of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, Frida Escobedo told Rowan Moore her focus for the commission was on “how you feel inside the space, how you go about it in the moment.” Opening this Friday on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Garden, visitors will finally get the chance to experience what she's created for them: an enclosed courtyard composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles, featuring a shallow pool of water to ward off the Summer heat.

The youngest architect to be given one of summer's hottest invitations, Escobedo is a welcom...

“I love materials that absorb the passage of time”: Frida Escobedo speaks with Rowan Moore about her 2018 Serpentine Pavilion and her design philosophy

2018-06-05T14:28:00-04:00

Escobedo’s approach is, she says, not about the look of the architectural object, but “how you feel inside the space, how you go about it in the moment”. It is designed for the “very specific space and time” of the Serpentine’s lawn in summer, but is also for the future in which, like previous pavilions, it will be sold to private collectors. Since “we don’t know where it’s going”, the design “can absorb locality no matter where it is”.

In this piece for The Guardian, Rowan Moore speaks with 39-year-old Mexican architect Frida Escobedo about her Serpentine Pavilion, an “intimate public courtyard” that will open in London this month. Escobedo talks about her start in architecture, Mexican modernism, and the “always incomplete”, temporal nature of architecture — a core concept of her work. “I love materials that absorb the passage of time”, she tells Moore.

“Throughout Escobedo’s work, there’s an interest in whatever is already there, which she attributes both to the influence of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, and to the culture of her country. To Bergson she owes the idea that every action adds to previous actions, like pearls on a necklace, changing the whole but not replacing it,” Moore writes.

Inaugural Serpentine Pavilion Beijing opens to the public

2018-06-01T18:04:00-04:00

The first Serpentine Pavilion co-commissioned and built outside the UK has opened its figurative doors in Beijing this week.

Designed by JIAKUN Architects, the temporary structure is the result of a collaboration between London's Serpentine Galleries and WF CENTRAL in Beijing. First renderings of the structure, which draws inspiration from Confucianism mimicking the figure of an archer, were unveiled earlier this year.

From the project description: "The Serpentine Pavilion Beijing will be a public space for cultural activities, events and social encounters at the very heart of WF CENTRAL, with a programme of cultural activities programmed across five Pavilion Weekends over the summer."

"With a focus on society, community and vernacula...

Construction begins on 2018 Serpentine Pavilion

2018-04-23T19:19:00-04:00

Construction is now underway for the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, which is scheduled to open in June in time for summer outdoor festivities at the Serpentine Galleries in London. Mexican architect Frida Escobedo — who was commissioned to design the 2018 pavilion in February — is working with AECOM, contractor Stage One Creative Services, and the Serpentine Galleries to bring the anticipated installation to life.

Escobedo's design fuses elements of Mexican domestic architecture and British materials and history, while playfully integrating light, water, and geometry.

Serpentine Pavilion 2018 Designed by Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura, Design Rendering, Interior View © Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura, Renderings by Atmósfera.

The pavilion comprises two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle to form an enclosed courtyard — a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture. The courtyard's axis will be directed to the north, in reference to the Prime Meridian that was est...

Serpentine Pavilion is coming to Beijing this summer

2018-01-31T18:28:00-05:00

London-based Serpentine Galleries are branching out to China and will be opening the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion Beijing this May.

Announced as a collaboration with WF CENTRAL from Beijing, the new pavilion will be designed by JIAKUN Architects in the city's historic Dongcheng District, only a stones-throw away from the iconic Forbidden City.

According to the architects, the pavilion design takes inspiration from Confucianism, having the architecture act as a physical representation of the traditional pursuit of Junzi: "The design is characterized by the figure of the Archer, in the form of a curved cantilever beam that incorporates the forces of elasticity through cables stretched between steel plates. Although modern architecture in Beijing has developed a series of powerful techniques to fight the external forces of fierce winds and unpredictable earthquakes, the Pavilion's integral...

From London to Kuala Lumpur: Serpentine Pavilion on the move.

2017-12-14T12:07:00-05:00

The Serpentine Pavilion 2017, designed this year by Germany-based architect Francis Kere, will be moved to Malaysia by early next year. “Thanks to the generous donations by a group of philanthropists, Ilham Gallery now has a prestigious architectural commission in its collection. “It was a surprising yet very welcome bit of news to be the new custodian of this exciting work,” said Ilham Gallery director Rahel Joseph.

In an exciting and unexpected outcome, Francis Kere's serpentine pavilion will be given renewed life with a permanent move to Kuala Lumpur next year. With the final site still unknown, the transition was made possible by a plethora of donations and support.

The short shelf life and physical ephemerality of architecture's competitions and their constructs have become a potent theme of debate in contemporary discourse, and as such, it is invigorating to see such a positive outcome to the Serpentine's pavilion competition.

Kere's pavilion was inspired by the tree that serves as a central meeting point for life in his home town of Gando, Burkina Faso, Francis Kéré design is a responsive Pavilion that seeks to connect its visitors to nature – and each other. An expansive roof, supported by a central steel framework, mimics a tree’s canopy, allowing air to circulate freely while offering shelter against London rain and summer heat.

To see a walkthrough of the pavilion's inception and ins...

Kéré-designed Serpentine Pavilion extends opening due to popular demand

2017-09-25T13:42:00-04:00

Due to popular demand, the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion will now remain open for an additional six weeks, through November 19th. This year's installation was designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré and inspired by the community tree of his native Burkina Faso. The award-winning architect from Gando responded to this year's brief with a bold, innovative structure, engineered by AECOM, that brings his characteristic sense of light and life to the lawns of Kensington Gardens.

Central to the Kéré's design was the shift from day to night, in which the Pavilion becomes a beacon of light. AECOM worked closely with Kéré to envision the mood and ambience from multiple points of view to craft a subtle and inviting glow. The end result: daylight streams into and through the structure during the day, while at night artificial lights reverse the process, flowing out of the structure and inviting people to come and visit.

Amy Koerbel, the Regional Director at AECOM, commented: “This year’s program has been...

Westbank purchases BIG's Serpentine Pavilion, plans to move it to Vancouver

2017-04-03T17:11:00-04:00

The Canadian luxury residential and mixed-use real estate development company Westbank has announced the purchase of the Serpentine Pavilion designed by BIG last year. Part of the annual Serpentine Pavilion commission, BIG’s “unzipped wall” involved modular, glass fiber rectangular forms stacked into an undulating form.

According to an announcement, Westbank plans to display the BIG pavilion for periods of time in both New York and Toronto before finally installing it permanently in Vancouver. Westbank had also sponsored the pavilion when it was sited in Hyde Park.

“Westbank has a well established and growing relationship Bjarke and his team at BIG,” states Ian Gillespie, the founder of Westbank. “Purchasing the Pavilion was a very natural extension of that partnership and we want to give Bjarke’s creation the most interesting afterlife of any of the previous pavilions.”

Diébédo Francis Kéré announced as Serpentine Pavilion 2017 designer

2017-02-21T11:36:00-05:00

" Diébédo Francis Kéré, the award-winning architect from Gando, Burkino Faso, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2017, responding to the brief with a bold, innovative structure that brings his characteristic sense of light and life to the lawns of Kensington Gardens. "

Diébédo Francis Kéré, Photo by Erik Jan OuwerkerkSerpentine Galleries have revealed that this year's pavilion will be designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré. The pavilion's design responds to the changeable British climate, whilst being influenced Kéré's ecological design ethos which drives his Berlin-based practice.

Last year's design by BIG drew in huge crowds, and acted as a discussion piece throughout the summer.

Diébédo Francis Kéré, Photo by Erik Jan Ouwerkerk