Serpentine Pavilion

LONDON, ENGLAND

2016

CLIENT

Serpentine Galleries

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

300 / 3,229

STATUS

COMPLETED

When invited to design the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, BIG decided to work with one of the most basic elements of architecture: the brick wall. Rather than clay bricks or stone blocks – the wall is erected from extruded fiberglass frames stacked on top of each other.

The unzipped Serpentine ‘wall’ creates a cave-like canyon lit through the fiberglass frames, the gaps between the shifted boxes and the translucent resin of the fiberglass. As a result, the structure embodies multiple aspects that are often perceived as opposites: a structure that is free-form yet rigorous, modular yet sculptural, transparent and opaque, box and blob.

Wall Structure — Boxes and profiles are arranged in an orthogonal grid.

Wall Components — The wall consists of 1,802 glass fiber boxes (400 mm x 500 mm) with 2,890 cruciform aluminum extrusions.

Spatial Wall — The boxes slide inwards and outwards in a checkerboard pattern, unfolding in two layers.

The Wall — Exploration of a basic architectural element: the brick wall.

Unzip — The single wall is pulled apart in a checkered pattern, creating two elevations.

Wall Becomes Space — The straight wall transforms into two sine curves with an undulating interior.

Site — The pavilion is positioned perpendicular to the gallery. At ground level, the gallery's front terrace and lower walkway are connected via the interior space.

Interior Space — Usable space is defined by hand-clearance height. The interior pavement is shaped by the curve of the walls, extending on both ends to provide a smooth transition between interior and exterior.

Integrated Bench — The edges of the path fold upwards to become a continuous bench.

Bench Becomes Bar — The bench grows upwards into a bar counter, providing space for the pavilion's cafe.

Serpentine Pavilion — The resulting serpentine wall provides a sheltered, sunny valley towards the entrance and a hillside towards the park. On the interior, the unzipped wall creates a light-filled canyon.

At the top, the wall appears like a straight line, while the bottom of it forms a sheltered valley at the entrance of the Pavilion and an undulating hillside towards the park.

The wall is pulled apart to form a cavity within it, to house the events of the Pavilion’s program. The unzipping of the wall turns the line into a surface, transforming the wall into a space. A complex three-dimensional environment is created that can be explored and experienced in a variety of ways: inside and outside.

The materials include wooden floors and extruded Lay Light by Fiberline profiles, providing every surface with a warm glow and linear texture – from the mesh of woven glass fibers to the undulating lines of the grain of the wood.

The simple manipulation of the archetypical space-defining garden wall creates a presence in the Park that changes as you move around it and through it. The north-south elevation of the Pavilion is a perfect rectangle. The east-west elevation is an undulating sculptural silhouette. Towards the east-west, the Pavilion is completely opaque and material. Towards the north-south, it is entirely transparent and practically immaterial. As a result, presence becomes absence, orthogonal becomes curvilinear, structure becomes gesture and box becomes blob.

Bjarke Ingels Kai-Uwe Bergmann Thomas Christoffersen Daniel Sundlin Beat Schenk Jakob Lange Kristian Hindsberg Lorenz Krisai Max Moriyama Aaron Powers Alice Cladet Andy Young Claire Thomas Spiller Kristoffer Negendahl Maria Sole Bravo Maria Holst Petersen Tianze Li Tore Banke Wells Barber Rune Hansen

AWARDS

Civic Trust Pro Tem Special Award, 2017

Architizer A+ Award Popular Choice Winner in Pavilions, 2017