Video: The Pavilion by Sanaa, Serpentine, London
Kicking off back in 2000 with Zaha Hadid's suitably swooping offering, the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion project (sponsored by NetJets Europe) has, each year since, introduced a specially commissioned pavilion to London's Hyde Park. With Alumnus including Rem Koolhaas and Olafur Eliasson, this year sees the turn of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Japanese firm,Sanaa.
Watch a video interview with the architects and tour the pavillion
see more images of this year's pavillion and past work from Sanaa
Best known for their toppled, cubic addition to the New York skyline - in the shape of the New museum of Contemporary Art - the pair have been practicing under the collaborative title for over a decade, and their paired down architectural approach can be witnessed in cities across the globe with the Prada Beauty building in Hong Kong and the Christian Dior building in Tokyo.
Set to sit upon the gallery's lawn for the duration of the summer, the Pavilion itself, in the words of the architects, is like 'floating aluminum, drifting freely between the trees like smoke.' With no walls and no sense of physical restriction, SANAA's Pavilion is fixed, like a floating oil slick, upon a sparse collection of wispy columns.
Taking a birds-eye view, the giant, looping aluminum roof that comprises the pavilion sits like a giant silver paint splodge, next to the rather more traditional architecture of the Serpentine itself. Designed to act as an extension of the park, SANAA hope their addition will protect summer revelers from the highly variable elements.
SANAA's first built structure in the UK, the pavilion contains space for a cafe and a theatre - within which performances, talks and film screenings will take place throughout the Pavilion's four months in residence.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
ADDRESS
Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London
W2 3XA
-
Montblanc’s leather goods evolution offers peak style
Montblanc takes design inspiration from its iconic writing archive for new collections of leather goods
By Simon Mills Published
-
Ray Phoenix to rise in Arizona
Ray Phoenix housing project launches, designed by Johnston Marklee, who worked with Lamar Johnson Collaborative and artist Alex Israel, for property experts Ray and Vela
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
Tomás Saraceno’s spider-led show at Serpentine has legs, and lots of them
‘Web(s) of Life’, the first major UK show by Tomás Saraceno, is a living, collaborative and multi-species call to climate action involving everything from dog-friendly sculptures to ‘spider diviners’ – but no phones allowed
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Steve McQueen to screen his harrowing film 'Grenfell' at London’s Serpentine
Acclaimed film director and artist Steve McQueen will screen his film, Grenfell, at London’s Serpentine South gallery (7 April-10 May 2023), six years after the Grenfell Tower block blaze killed 72
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Barbara Chase-Riboud at Serpentine: alternative monuments, parallel histories
‘Infinite Folds’ at Serpentine North Gallery celebrates Barbara Chase-Riboud, the American artist, novelist and poet who has spent more than seven decades pondering history, memory, and the public monument
By MZ Adnan Last updated
-
Theaster Gates’ design for Serpentine Pavilion 2022 revealed
The American artist and urban planner reveals his plans for the Serpentine Pavilion 2022. Black Chapel has spirituality, music and community at its heart
By TF Chan Last updated
-
Tom Hingston on designing for Serpentine Galleries, the V&A, and Wallpaper*
London-based art director and graphic designer Tom Hingston discusses his visual identities for Serpentine Galleries
By TF Chan Last updated
-
140 artists on saving Planet Earth
In the book 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth, Serpentine Galleries’ Hans Ulrich Obrist and Kostas Stasinopoulos, alongside leading artists offer innovative solutions to the climate crisis
By Nuray Bulbul Last updated
-
Counterspace's Sumayya Vally on her Serpentine Pavilion
Counterspace is the fast-emerging South African architectural practice commissioned to create the latest Serpentine Pavilion in London. Here, its founder Sumayya Vally takes artist and photographer Mikhael Subotzky on a whistle-stop tour of their adopted hometown, Johannesburg
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Serpentine Pavilion commission extended for the first time
Counterspace's anticipated Serpentine Pavillion design will now debut in summer 2021
By Elly Parsons Last updated