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Since its launch in 2000, the Serpentine Pavilion has been providing renowned and emerging architects with a platform for design experimentation, becoming an important display of contemporary architecture. As we approach the inauguration date of the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Lina Ghotmeh and titled “À Table", French for sitting together to eat, we look back at the last six editions of the famous annual structure.
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Black Chapel, Theaster Gates' 2022 Serpentine Pavilion is Now Open
The 21st Serpentine Pavilion, Black Chapel, designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates was realized with the architectural support of Adjaye Associates. Going beyond architecture to create a space for shared emotional and spiritual experiences brought forth by sacred music and sacred arts, the project draws inspiration from the architectural typologies that ground the artist’s practice. It references the bottle kilns of Stoke-on-Trent in England, the beehive kilns of the Western United States, San Pietro, and the Roman tempiettos and traditional African building structures. P
The 2021 Serpentine Pavilion by Counterspace Studio Captured by Mark Hazeldine
Counterspace, the 20th practice to accept the invitation to design the Serpentine pavilion, has created an intervention “based on past and present places of meeting, organizing and belonging across London”. Re-interpreting the shapes of London into the structure, referencing the architecture of places of worship, markets, restaurants, bookshops, and local cultural institutions that are particularly relevant to migrant communities in neighborhoods, the project will also have fragments installed across the city.
First Look at the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion
Junya Ishigami's design for the 2019 pavilion takes the form of a slate sheet rising from the landscape of the park, held up by pilotis that form an interior field. "My design for the Pavilion plays with our perspectives of the built environment against the backdrop of a natural landscape, emphasizing a natural and organic feel as though it had grown out of the lawn, resembling a hill made out of rocks," explained Ishigami.
Frida Escobedo's Serpentine Pavilion Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu
Escobedo's design, which fuses elements typical to Mexican architecture with local London references, features a courtyard enclosed by two rectangular volumes constructed from cement roof tiles. These tiles are stacked to form a celosia, a type of wall common to Mexican architecture which is permeable, allowing ventilation and views to the other side.
Diébédo Francis Kéré's Serpentine Pavilion Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu
The 2017 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Francis Kéré was conceived as a microcosmos—"a community structure within Kensington Gardens". The pavilion has been designed to consciously fuse cultural references from Kéré's hometown of Gando in Burkino Faso, with "experimental construction techniques." The architect hopes that the pavilion, as a social condenser, "will become a beacon of light, a symbol of storytelling and togetherness."
BIG's 2016 Serpentine Pavilion Opens Alongside 4 Summerhouses
The 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by BIG consists of an "unzipped wall" in which a straight line of tubular fiberglass bricks at the top of the wall is split into two undulating sides, housing the program of the pavilion. For the first time, the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion is also accompanied by four "summerhouses" designed by Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman, and Asif Khan.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on February 08, 2022, and updated on May 3, 2023.
_2523.jpg?1644264760 "A Look at the Last 6 Editions of the Serpentine Pavilion")
