Since the announcement this past March, Chilean architect Smiljan Radic has unveiled the 14th Serpentine Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery's Kensington Gardens in London. For the past 14 years, the Serpentine Gallery has invited famous architects like Sou Fujimoto, Jean Nouvel, SANAA, and Frank Gehry to design the annual temporary structure for the London Festival of Architecture. Their famous designers aside, the pavilions themselves are a story of their own.
An eggshell. A "Stone Age spaceship". A cocoon. A deformed donut -- Radic's design for the 14th Serpentine Pavilion is already receiving plenty of colorful descriptions. Supported by massive quarry stones, Radic's pavilion is a fiberglass, semi-transparent hollow shell that will be used to host a variety of social and cultural events and will also include a cafe inside. The pavilion's flooring also features gray wooden decking to make the structure feel more like a patio than a fully enclosed space.
Playing on the idea of the folly, Radic drew inspiration from his earlier works for the pavilion, specifically The Castle of the Selfish Giant -- which was inspired by the Oscar Wilde story -- and the Restaurant Mestizo.
The Serpentine Pavilion will be open to the public for free starting Thursday, June 26 until October 19, 2014.
Also check out Archinect's coverage on previous Serpentine Pavilions here.
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