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Inside Barkow Leibinger's Serpentine Pavilion Summer House

2016-06-10T15:06:00-04:00

"For us it's a prototype. For us, a prototype means it will have another life,” “Right now, our summer house operates at a scale of something maybe like furniture or something like a small building, but a prototype is something that has a resonance, it's something that lives beyond its four months here, that will occur on a different scale, in a different place.”

Barkow Leibinger's Summer House is constructed with four structural bands made from plywood and timber. The piece is grounded by a bench, then strengthened by three central curves with a double layered free flowing cantilevered roof.

The duo known for their research-led process and playful style pay tribute to the similarly playful William Kent structure that once stood on a nearby manmade hill. When in use the small structure provided panoramic views of the park while at the same time mechanically rotating 360 degrees.

The Summer House equally provides innumerable views and is particularly expressive in the changing light; continually offering new lines and shapes with the recast shadows. The surging curves are expressively fluid and trace the movements of something reminiscent of an initial sketch. An idea paused in time.

Sitting within the structure you feel part of the architectural process; a structure Frank Barlow described as, “a dialogue and a continuation”.

Archinect's U.K ...

Construction of Serpentine Pavilions begins

2016-05-13T05:30:00-04:00

Construction of the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion and Summer Houses has started. For the first time, the Serpentine Galleries has expanded its annual architecture programme to include four Summer Houses, located a short walk from the Gallery in Kensington Gardens, in addition to the 16th Pavilion on the Gallery lawn. For the fourth year running AECOM, in collaboration with David Glover, is delivering technical advisory services for the project...

This is the first year that the main Serpentine Pavilion – designed by BIG this time – will be accompanied by a series of smaller "summer pavilions." Kunlé Adeyemi of NLÉ, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman and Asif Khan have each designed a pavilion for the nearby Kensington Gardens.

The pavilions will open to the public in June.

Serpentine unzips Bjarke Ingels' Pavilion and 4 Summer Houses

2016-02-24T13:21:00-05:00

Bjarke Ingels' unfurling wall-based pavilion joins four summer houses—designed by Asif Khan, Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, and Yona Friedman—to create this year's Serpentine Architecture Program. Each of the four summer houses riffs on the adjacent Queen Caroline's Temple designed in 1734, while BIG's Serpentine Pavilion appears to have been inspired by the desire to, according to an interview with Ingels in the Standard, "use rationality and rigour to create the extraordinary out of the ordinary.”

“We’ve played with one of the most basic elements [of a building] — the wall,” Ingels explains. “Typically, walls are made from stacked identical elements. When you see it you can sense how it fits into our general way of thinking. We are playing with the idea of bigamy — you don’t have to choose between box or blob.”

According to the Serpentine Pavilion's website, Asif Khan's summer house was designed in part to mimic the Queen Caroline Temple's orientation toward the Serpentine Lake, ...

BIG to design 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, alongside smaller "Summer Houses" by Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman and Asif Kahn

2016-02-10T15:29:00-05:00

The Serpentine Galleries in London announced earlier today the designer of the 2016 iteration of their annual Pavilion series: Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, the Copenhagen and New York-based global powerhouse.

This summer marks the 16th Pavilion of the acclaimed program, which began in 2000. Conceived initially by Julia Peyton-Jones, the outgoing co-director of the Galleries, the Serpentine’ Pavilion commission is awarded each year to noted architects who have never built in the UK.

As Peyton-Jones’ swan song, this summer’s program will be expanded to include four other 25 square meter structures, or “Summer Houses”, scattered on the lawns of Hyde Park in close proximity to the Galleries. These will be designed by Kunlé Adeyemi – NLÉ (Amsterdam/Lagos), Barkow Leibinger (Berlin/New York), Yona Friedman (Paris) and Asif Kahn (London).

Since its inception, the Serpentine Pavilion has drawn large crowds, garnering public attention for practitioners whose reputations had not necessarily exce...

Barkow Leibinger’s “Kinetic Wall” prototype exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2014

2014-06-11T20:37:00-04:00

American/German architectural practice Barkow Leibinger is back at the Venice Biennale with "Kinetic Wall". Specifically designed for this year's Biennale, the prototype highlights the evolution of wall-making while also standing as an ode to the 20th century fantasy of kinetic architecture -- or architecture that can move. Kinetic Wall is currently on display in the Wall Room at the "Elements of Architecture“ exhibition in the Venice Biennale.

Get more details on Bustler.

See it in action in the video below.

Barkow Leibinger’s Tour Total Opens in Berlin

2012-10-12T17:41:00-04:00

Tour Total, the latest project by German firm Barkow Leibinger, opened yesterday in Berlin. The 18-story tower, new home to the Germany headquarters of oil company TOTAL, is the first piece of the so called "Europacity" behind Berlin Central Station.

Barkow Leibinger Installation at Marrakech Biennale “Higher Atlas”

2012-03-08T18:00:00-05:00

Berlin-based Barkow Leibinger Architects have shared with us "Loom-Hyperbolic," the architects' installation at the 2012 Marrakech Biennale "Higher Atlas" in Morocco which commenced earlier this week (the installation however is still on view until June 3rd at the ruins of the Koutoubia Mosque). This year's Moroccan biennale of contemporary international culture was curated by Carson Chan and Nadim Samman.