Francis Kéré designs pavilion for Tippet Rise Art Center

The creator of last year’s Serpentine Pavilion, architect Francis Kéré has been commissioned to create a permanent pavilion in the 10,260-acre grounds of The Tippet Rise Art Center.
The structure, which is scheduled to open to the public in the summer of 2019, has been conceived as an ‘elevated gathering place’, says the architect. The site, which offers long views of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains, was the ideal location for a space that fuses art, nature and architecture, and Kéré’s pavilion does just that.
The wooden pavilion will span 1,900 sq ft and sit among aspen and cottonwood trees by a stream. The structure forms part of the architect’s ongoing investigations on canopies, following up on the 2015 structure for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Copenhagen and the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion in London; and it will be built in local materials. Light and shadow will play a key role in the design’s calming and tactile environment.
‘Standing on the high meadow of Tippet Rise Art Center, looking out at the mountains under a vast sky, people can face nature at its widest scale’, says Kéré. ‘But with this pavilion, Tippet Rise offers a more intimate experience of its landscape within a quiet shelter, where people can access the most secret part of nature: the heart of the trees. I am honored that Peter and Cathy Halstead have invited me to contribute to their magnificent Art Center, and I am deeply grateful for their generosity in linking the creation of this pavilion to the construction of a new school in my home of Burkina Faso.’
In parallel to this commission, the Tippet Rise Fund has announced that it will support the construction of a new school building in Kéré’s native Burkina Faso, which will also complete in 2019.
The pavilion will be made out of local timber and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2019.
The architect envisioned the piece as a space for gatherings
The structure will offer striking views of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains.
Laura Viklund Gunn of Gunnstock Timber Frames will collaborate with Kéré as the local project architect.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the website of Francis Kere
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Johanna Parv’s ‘engineered formalwear’ is made for the woman on the move
Part of our monthly series ‘Uprising’, Wallpaper* meets Johanna Parv, the London-based designer whose stealthily beautiful clothes are designed to take women from boardroom to dinner by way of the bike lane
By Orla Brennan Published
-
Pretty in pink: Mumbai's new residential tower shakes up the cityscape
'Satguru’s Rendezvous' in Mumbai houses luxury apartments behind its elegant fluted concrete skin. We take a tour.
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Federica Biasi is encouraging designers to play through experimentation with her new Kimono tile collection
Inspired by Decoratori Bassanesi’s heritage and traditional Japanese fashion, the Kimono tile collection offers a myriad of configurations to transform interiors.
By Ifeoluwa Adedeji Published
-
Heritage and conservation after the fires: what’s next for Los Angeles?
In the second instalment of our 'Rebuilding LA' series, we explore a way forward for historical treasures under threat
By Mimi Zeiger Published
-
Why this rare Frank Lloyd Wright house is considered one of Chicago’s ‘most endangered’ buildings
The JJ Walser House has sat derelict for six years. But preservationists hope the building will have a vibrant second act
By Anna Fixsen Published
-
Buy a slice of California’s midcentury modern history with this 1955 Pasadena house
Conrad Buff II Residence has been fully restored and updated for the 21st century
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Step inside a writer's Richard Neutra-designed apartment in Los Angeles
Michael Webb, invites us into his LA home – a showcase of modernist living
By Michael Webb Published
-
Join our world tour of contemporary homes across five continents
We take a world tour of contemporary homes, exploring case studies of how we live; we make five stops across five continents
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Architecture of Seduction: how Horace Gifford built a modernist, queer paradise
Fire Island is explored through a new edition of Christopher Rawlins’ seminal architectural and social history book on the life and work of Horace Gifford
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Step inside this furniture gallerist's live-work space by Steven Holl in upstate New York
Designed by Steven Holl for modern furniture gallerists Mark McDonald and Dwayne Resnick, this live-work space in upstate New York is a midcentury collector’s paradise
By Michael Webb Published
-
Remembering architect Ricardo Scofidio (1935 – 2025)
Ricardo Scofidio, seminal architect and co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, has died, aged 89; we honour his passing and celebrate his life
By Ellie Stathaki Published