Pavilion: The Latest Architecture and News

As we announced back in February, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and their Chinese collaborator Ai Weiwei will design this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion at Hyde Park in London, a special edition that will be part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad. This will be the trio’s first collaborative built structure in the UK.

Back then, it was announced that their design will explore the hidden history of the previous installations (see all the previous pavilions in our infographic), with eleven columns under the lawn of the Serpentine, representing the past pavilions and a twelfth column supporting a floating platform roof 1.4 metres above ground, which looks like a reflecting water-like surface in the renderings. The plan of the pavilion is based on a mix of the 11 previous pavilions’ layouts, pavilions that are represented as excavated foundations from which a new cork cladded landscape appears, as an archeological operation.

The Sky Light Pavilion, designed by Nimbu for the Architecture Pavilion Competition sponsored by the Serbian Arhitekton Magazine and the company, Kingspan, is universal, timeless and spaceless. The architects believe that a pavilion shouldn’t be connected with the idea of conceiving one construction that is meaningless. Instead, an architecture pavilion, to be contemporary, should be a construction that demonstrates the pursuit of the architecture itself. Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa says that the renewal, whatever it is, means rediscovering its deepest essence, and that architecture is a direct expression of the existence, of the human presence in the world. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Inspired by the theme of Expo 2015 – “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” – the idea behind the design by Ternulomello + Nuno Marcos of recreating a greenhouse for the Service Areas seemed natural and spontaneous This construction method reminded them of the Crystal Palace, designed and built for the 1851 Universal Exhibition in London. The intervention is based on the application of passive technologies, to achieve a complete identification between energetic device and structure. Thermo-hygrometric comfort is achieved through natural ventilation, natural lighting and selective shading. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in natural surroundings close to the mountain, river, and wetland in the west south suburb of Beijing, Atelier 11’s proposal for the main pavilion of the Expo aims to create an artificial landscape. Rather than a manmade construction, their design echos the park’s site condition and the Expo’s particular theme. Simplistic form, unique spaces, and flexible planning become elements that both facilitate and influence one another in the overall design. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Grenade, the proposal for the CityVision Inflatable Pavilion competition, by SITBON Architectes aims to create a relation with its environment. The theme of the pavilion is to think of the city as an immense architecture in constant mobility, by the transformation of its town planning, of the wanderings of its inhabitants, etc. The time dimension becomes essential in this management of the living area. By lauding the mobility, they question the vision of the architecture as a motionless element to in-vest it with another appropriate life, which allows each one to grow, to be transformed and to move. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The shortlisted proposal for the Swedish Pavilion at the upcoming 2012 World Expo by Stockholm Field Office, in collaboration with Fieldwork, is based on the idea of gradients; the gradual shifts in Swedish landscape and relatively smooth changes in Swedish society. This idea is interpreted into different spatial elements, gradually fading between different points in space. They create the physical environment of the exhibition space, showcasing information and objects as well as guiding the flows of visitors through the space. More images and architects’ description after the break.