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.
“À table is an invitation to dwell together, in the same space and around the same table,” Ghotmeh explains. “It is an encouragement to enter into a dialogue, to convene and to think about how we could reinstate and re-establish our relationship to nature and the Earth.”
“As a Mediterranean woman, born and raised in Beirut, and living in Paris, I feel a deep belonging to our ground, to what it contains, and to what it embraces: from the buried yet weathering archaeologies of past civilisations to the embedded living world that spurs green life to sprout from every crack in the streets,” Ghotmeh continues. “In my practice as an architect, I excavate to design (and learn) from the traces of the past and I listen to the voices of my ancestors as well as those of our living world. These voices vividly resonate with future structures as ways to influence and challenge tomorrow’s architecture.”
According to Ghotmeh, the pavilion will be constructed of bio-sourced and low-carbon materials. A skeleton-like structure, inspired by tree leaves, will be formed of sustainably-sourced timber ribs arranged to support a suspended pleated roof. The pavilion will also be capable of disassembly and reassembly, allowing it to move location after its time in Hyde Park is finished.
Ghotmeh’s commission for the 2023 pavilion follows last year’s design by Theaster Gates. The 2021 edition of the Serpentine Pavilion was designed by South African studio Counterspace, whose original 2020 commission was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can look back at the history of the Serpentine Pavilion through our dedicated coverage here.
4 Comments
Why is this even still a thing? It should have been ended after Zumthor's Mic Drop.
There's always a narrative to explain the design when it comes to the Serpentine - a personal story, a cultural angle, some kind of zeitgeist. Sometimes the words do augment the design. Other times, they obfuscate a middling project. Can a work be assessed on its merits without the provenance of its creator ala a silent crit?
its hard to do architecture for community with a project that is about an individualist conception/statement about architecture. Im impressed they went for it anyway. Will have to see it when it is done and in use. I wonder how well it works as both the collective gathering space and the cafe that it becomes when special events aren't going on (ie, most of the time).
As a built thing it is a nice reflection of our times. Restrained, simple, direct. FWIW, Zumthor's project was that too, but he was invoking introspection more than anything.
Of the last decade of projects my own favorites remain Selgascano's and Fujimoto's. Both were made for the insta generation in a flashy way (BIG too). This looks more down to earth and chill. Not a bad choice for the post-covid world we are looking into...
Given this "According to Ghotmeh, the pavilion will be constructed of bio-sourced and low-carbon materials" is it safe to assume the two above images aren't photos as credited but design images/renders? Either way I must say I do like the vibes...be interesting to compare to final product!
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