Serpentine Gallery Pavilion – Annual Temporary Structure UPDATED
Since it’s inception in 2000, the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commission has bought to London some of the world’s most imminent contemporary architects who have produced some notable and outstanding temporary structures.
Below is the full list of Serpentine Gallery Pavilions, from 2000 to 2010.
2000 – Zaha Hadad
“Briefly brilliant …” The Guardian
Zaha Hadid’s tent had a triangulated roof structure spanning a large internal space of 600sq metres, supported primarily by a steel structure. A roof of angular flat planes extended to the ground created the feel of a continued solid structure, whilst its angular form created many individual, unique internal spaces.
2001 – Daniel Libeskind, Eighteen Turns
‘Temporary structures like Eighteen Turns are great additions to our parks and cityscapes; they can offer us adventurous, alternative and even radical impressions of what a new architecture might be.’ The Guardian
Entitled Eighteen Turns, Libeskind’s origami inspired design highlighted the beauty of the gardens in Hyde Park and their connection to the Gallery. This pavilion was created from metallic planes, clad in aluminium panels that created dynamically reflecting planes of light, as well as the surrounding park.
2002 – Toyo Ito
‘Why can’t all new buildings be this good? Toyo Ito’s magical summer pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery is a lesson in imagination.’ Evening Standard
Toyo Ito’s 2002 pavilion was a design produced from a deconstructed and rotated cube. The numerous triangles and trapezoids formed by this system of intersecting lines were clad in alternating transparent and translucent segments, highlighting the concept of motion.
2003 – Oscar Niemeyer
‘Imagine Garbo or Sinatra in their prime, and performing now. With this week’s opening of the 2003 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, just such a time-warping miracle is taking place.’ Evening Standard
Built out of steel, aluminium, concrete and glass, its the 2003 pavilion afforded wonderful views across the park. It housed specially conceived wall drawings by Niemeyer. The Pavilion conformed to Niemeyer’s principle that every project must be capable of summary in a simple ‘sketch’ and that once the support structure is finished the architecture should be more or less complete.
2004 – MVRDV
The 2004 proposal was so complex that it lead to budget issues and was never constructed.
2005 – Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
with Cecil Balmond – Arup
‘The temporary pavilion has become unmissable, a rare opportunity to view the work of the finest international architects at first hand. This is how architecture should be exhibited and remembered. See it, and Siza’s exquisite space will stay with you’. Financial Times
Uniquely for the Serpentine pavilion, Siza aimed to create a relationship and dialogue between the neo-classical gallery and the pavilion.
The result was a structure that mirrored the domestic scale of the Serpentine and articulated the landscape between the two buildings. The Pavilion was a simple rectangular grid, distorted in such a way to create a dynamic and curvaceous form. It’s main material was timber, which further reflected the relationship between the pavilion and the surrounding park.
2006 – Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup
The 2006 Serpentine Pavilion is defined by events and activities. We are proposing a space that facilitates the inclusion of individuals in communal dialogue and shared experience. Rem Koolhaas
The main focal point of the design was a large ovoid-shaped inflatable canopy that floated above the Gallery’s lawn. Made from translucent material, the canopy was raised into the air or lowered to cover the amphitheatre below, in relation to the weather. The walled structure below the canopy housed a café and forum for televised and recorded public programmes including live talks and film screenings.
2007 – Zaha Hadid, Lilas, and Olafur Eliasson
This exhibit allows us to encounter Hadid’s extraordinary vision better than any models, drawings or films of her awe-inspiring buildings could convey. The Guardian
Prior to the pavilion being created, a further temporary structure created by Zaha Hadid was put in place until the delayed pavilion from Olafur Eliasson could be constructed.
Hadid’s installation was designed as an open air space, 5.5 meters in height that consisted of three identical fabric structures or parasols arrayed around a central point. Each parasol developed sculpturally from a small articulated base to a large cantilevered diamond shape. Taking inspiration from complex natural geometries such as flower petals and leaves the three parasols overlapped to create the installation’s main conceptual feature: complex symmetry, interweaving all-the-while without touching, allowing air, light and sound to travel through narrow gaps in a state that is both open and likewise tending toward closure. Raised on a low platform located within an open field flanked by a row of trees just South of the Serpentine Gallery, the installation was free standing and accessible from all sides.
Olafur Eliasson’s timberclad structure resembled a spinning top and brought a dramatic vertical dimension to the traditional single-level pavilion. A wide spiralling ramp made two complete turns, allowing visitors to ascend from the Gallery lawn to the highest point for views across Kensington Gardens as well as a bird’s eye view of the chamber below.
2008, Frank Gehry
From a distance, the pavilion — with its massive, steel-reinforced Douglas fir columns and beams and its roof of angled, suspended glass planes — looks like an explosion in an architecture factory. NY Times
Frank Gehry said:
‘The Pavilion is designed as a wooden timber structure that acts as an urban street running from the park to the existing Gallery. Inside the Pavilion, glass canopies are hung from the wooden structure to protect the interior from wind and rain and provide for shade during sunny days. The Pavilion is much like an amphitheatre, designed to serve as a place for live events, music, performance, discussion and debate. As the visitor walks through the Pavilion they have access to terraced seating on both sides of the urban street. In addition to the terraced seating there are two elevated seating pods, which are accessed around the perimeter of the Pavilion. These pods serve as visual markers enclosing the street and can be used as stages, private viewing platforms and dining areas.’
2009, Sanaa
By Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Tokyo architectural studio Sanaa, is certainly the most ethereal yet.The Guardian
Sejima and Nishizawa created their Pavilion to resemble a reflective cloud or a floating pool of water, sitting atop a series of delicate columns. The metal roof structure varies in height, wrapping itself around the trees in the park, reaching up towards the sky and sweeping down almost to the ground in various places. Open and ephemeral in structure, its reflective materials make it sit seamlessly within the natural environment, reflecting both the park and sky around it.
2010, Jean Nouvel
An interior whose all-encompassing redness casts the green of the park into heightened relief.The Telegraph
The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a sloped freestanding wall that stands 12m above the lawn. Striking glass, polycarbonate and fabric structures create a versatile system of interior and exterior spaces, while the flexible auditorium will accommodate the Serpentine Gallery Park Nights and the changing summer weather.
2011, Peter Zumthor
The Swiss architect is working in conjunction with Dutch designer Piet Oudolf to design a some what low key garden courtyard. The garden is to be wrapped in a design by the Swiss architect that will be covered in a black paste and sand. The interesting concept behind the design is hortus conclusus, the idea of a garden within a garden – a quite escape from the surrounding manic, a garden within a garden.
How this more delicate, introspective pavilion will fair in the eyes of the visiting public, when it is one of the most anticipated architectural additions to London (every year) is hard to guess. One thing is for sure – it is sure to be one of the talking points of the summer.
