Every year the Serpentine Gallery commissions a temporary pavilion to sit next to it in Kensington Gardens for the summer. This year’s pavilion, the thirteenth in a series of architecturally designed structures, is by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto – as you can see from the pictures it shimmers like a cloud in the sunlight.
The pavilion is a delicate latticed structure which is made up of steel poles that are arranged in 40 and 80 centimetre cubes. This translucent quality means that you can see through it from all sides, and it somehow seems to blend into the landscape.
It is designed as a flexible space so visitors can use it all sorts of different ways, and although it has only been open for a day or two it has already become a hang-out. A range of public events and screenings are arranged to take place throughout the summer, in addition to the copious coffee drinking of course!
This is Fujimoto’s first building in the UK – you’ll find most of his work in Japan, which is inspired by organic structures such as nests, forests and caves. As he explains:
A new form of environment will be created, where the natural and the man-made merge; not solely architectural nor solely natural, but a unique meeting of the two.
Past pavilions have been designed by Ai Weiwei, Frank Gehry, Oscar Niemeyer and Zaha Hadid, who created the first one back in 2000. The pavilion will be in place until October when it will be dismantled and sold – one can only imagine the size of garden you would need to do it justice!
About Bonnie Alter
