Three years after getting the nod from The Royal Parks, the Serpentine will finally open its new Serpentine Sackler Gallery this Saturday, a Grade II*-listed building located a stone's throw from the original gallery in Hyde Park.
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid has transformed the interior of the Magazine building - a 200-year-old former gunpowder store - and added a curvaceous new extension as a contemporary counterpoint. The new space will bring some 900 sq m to the gallery's footprint, and will house the Magazine restaurant along with an exhibition space and function rooms.
Hadid rendered her classic curves in a soft and gentle fashion for the new annex in order to respect the neo-classical original. 'We wanted to use a new materiality,' says the architect, who opted for a PTFE coated, glass-fibre woven fabric membrane for the exterior skin. 'It looks temporary but is actually attached to the [existing] building in a really light way.'
The gallery has a long-held relationship with the UK-based architect, who designed the first of its annual summer Serpentine Gallery Pavilions in 2000. 'We wanted to work with her again for many reasons - primarily because she has no realised [permanent] buildings in Central London and she is one of the most distinguished architects working today,' says Serpentine Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones. 'She married the old and the new extraordinarily.'
Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of exhibitions and programmes, adds: 'The German art historian Erwin Panofsky said that we invent the future out of fragments of the past, and that is exactly what is happening here.'
The existing structure's careful restoration was spearheaded by the Serpentine and Hadid, in partnership with The Royal Parks, while the landscaping around it was created by landscape designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd.
The new and existing galleries will work together to host a programme of art exhibitions - the first of which is a solo show of the work of Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas, who creates monumental pieces in concrete, wood, steel and clay. 'Adrian wanted to develop a project where he really embraces the building's contradictions, the old and the new, the future and the past, the different traditions of the building,' says Jochen Volz, head of programmes at the gallery. Meanwhile, the original Serpentine building will be hosting the first solo exhibition in a UK public institution of Italian artist Marisa Merz.
This new addition to Hyde Park is named after Dr Mortimer and Dame Theresa Sackler, whose foundation supported the project with the largest single gift received by the Gallery in its 43-year history.
Opening to the public on Saturday, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery will secure some 900 sq m of much-needed space for the London gallery, and will be home to The Magazine restaurant, as well as exhibition space and function rooms
The original neo-classical building's careful restoration was spearheaded by the Serpentine and Hadid, in partnership with The Royal Parks
Hadid's classic curves are rendered in a soft and gentle fashion for the extension in order to respect the Grade II* listed original building
'We wanted to use a new materiality,' says the architect, who opted for a PTFE coated, glass-fibre woven fabric membrane on the outside of the structure. 'It looks temporary but is actually attached to the [existing] building in a really light way'
The curvaceous interior of the new extension
The Magazine restaurant
The interior of the renovated 1805 building
Hyde Park's new gallery is named after Dr Mortimer and Dame Theresa Sackler, whose Foundation supported the project with the largest single gift received by the Gallery in its 43-year history.
ADDRESS
Serpentine Sackler Gallery
West Carriage Drive
Kensington Gardens
London W2 2AR
-
The Stuff That Surrounds, episode three: Inside the home of architect Glenn SestigIn The Stuff That Surrounds, Wallpaper* explores a life through objects. This episode, we’re invited inside an architectural gem – just what you'd expect from one of the most distinctive voices in the field today
-
Germane Barnes just transformed a humble Indiana parking garage into an enormous sub-woofer systemWith Joy Riding, the Miami-based designer’s installation at Exhibit Columbus, Barnes celebrates togetherness by evoking Black car culture
-
The best Ruth Asawa exhibition is actually on the streets of San FranciscoThe artist, now the subject of a major retrospective at SFMOMA, designed many public sculptures scattered across the Bay Area – you just have to know where to look
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThe Wallpaper* team immersed themselves in culture this week, attending theatre, music and art performances and exhibitions at some of London’s most esteemed establishments. Along the way, we may have discovered the city's best salad…
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been another week of Wallpaper* being first through the door – visiting, sampling and reporting back on the freshest in art, design, beauty and more. Highlights included a new rental development, skincare residency and Edinburgh hotel…
-
Get the picture? A new exhibition explores the beautiful simplicity of Japanese pictogramsThe simple, minimalist forms of a pictogram are uniquely Japanese, as new exhibition 'Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs' illustrates
-
From Snapchat dysmorphia to looksmaxing, have digital beauty standards made us lose sight of what's real, asks a new exhibitionAI, social media and the ease with which we can tweak our face mean we're heading towards a dystopian beauty future, argues 'Virtual Beauty' at Somerset House
-
Take a rare peek inside eighties London's most famous clubFrom George Michael to Boy George, photographer David Koppel captured a who's who of celerities at Eighties nightclub Limelight
-
Shop the gloriously mad inner workings of Gary Card’s brain in London’s SohoSet designer and artist Gary Card has taken over London's Plaster Store – expect chaos and some really good accessories
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of societyA new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
Leila Bartell’s cloudscapes are breezily distorted, a response to an evermore digital world‘Memory Fields’ is the London-based artist’s solo exhibition at Tristan Hoare Gallery (until 25 July 2025)
