José Selgas and Lucía Cano are the architects behind this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, the 15th annual temporary pavilion commissioned by Serpentine Gallery since Zaha Hadid’s inaugural structure in 2000.
SelgasCano’s creation is light and playful with variations in its coloured, mirrored, ribboned and translucent body. Achieving a kaleidoscope-like découpage of light fractals within a colourful plastic skin, the architects achieve this effect through the use of two layers of ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) – architectural plastic wrapped around a white steel frame.
Working through various layers of opacity, translucence and shadows, SelgasCano’s pavilion immediately effects polyvalent readings of the structure. The luminosity and colours change according to the number of people inside (and outside) the pavilion, the position of the sun and clouds, and even rainfall.
Reminiscent of the psychedelic set of Roger Vadim’s 1968 film Barbarella, while the pavilion employs a largely polymer form, SelgasCano explain – quite paradoxically – that for them, architecture is secondary to nature.
Your architectural creations such as the Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre in Cáseres, Spain, have involved a curious juxtaposition of plastic within a natural setting. How did you conceive of this year’s pavilion within the context of the natural?
José Selgas: We are very specific with every project. With this project in particular, we are clearly surrounded by Kensington Gardens. We both like architecture a lot but we prefer nature, so at the very beginning when we started this pavilion we thought: “Let’s bring some nature to this space.” This was an empty spot but likewise we were to create a temporary pavilion which would only last four months. And we cannot necessarily bring nature to the new installation space. So we said: “OK, let’s work with nature but in an absolutely artificial way—and not just with nature, but with the feeling of nature.” This pavilion is about that sentiment.
What is your inspiration behind the design?
Lucía Cano: We are inspired by every human facet, by every natural facet, by everything around us, by every historic issue that affects the projects. In this case it was exactly the same. We were inspired by the people of London, by their movements and their relations, by the way they walk at top speed, how they perambulate, how they wander around. For us, the main representation of this aspect, and in fact the most interesting place in London, is the Tube – the place where you can sense the real dimension of the city and its complexity; the natural complexity of the people.
At first glance I thought that this space resembled a basilica, but upon closer examination I realised that you have not created a cross but rather a postmodern ‘+’ sign. How did you conceive of this shape?
José Selgas: The arms of the structure are facing the main trees in the lawn and the biggest tree over there is the focus of this arm [indicating the principle arm]. The reason for the shape is more related to the site — it’s about how you surround the building.
How did you conceive the form and materials for the base of this year’s pavilion?
José Selgas: In the time we had to construct this pavilion, the materials were limited. We chose cement for the colour. We wanted the floor to be very white in order to contain all the visual effects so that it would be the main canvas for the building through the reproduction of light and colours onto the floor.
Since being inside the pavilion, the light and colours have changed countless times offering multiple levels of reading the space as well as the bodies moving through the structure. How did you conceptualise the design of form and colour?
José Selgas: People are absolutely important to this design — they cause the space to change colour. The transparency of certain areas lends to this interaction of people with the building, which is the main idea we wanted to represent in this structure: how people live in the building, how they move around the building.
How do you see the function of your pavilion in particular?
Lucía Cano: The whole pavilion is intended to give people a continuous experience. It’s a big machine designed to constantly provoke that experience in a very direct, personal way. Like any other experience, it should trigger a quite different reaction in each person. In that respect we regard and use it as a large-scale laboratory. The greater the number and range of reactions there are, the more successful the experiment and the more conclusions we will be able to draw from it.
The experience will be very personal and individual. It will be very changeable, depending on the day, the time, the light, your personal mood, and also depending on the current state of your recollections. We want people to interact with the pavilion in the same way as they interact with the city, the same way as they might interact with a forest or with other people. But we like to imagine them entering in their best mood, with total freedom, uninhibited, to get the best possible sensations and memories.
SelgasCano’s Serpentine Pavilion continues at the Serpentine Gallery, London, until 18 October 2015. Throughout its stay, the space will be hosting a series of Friday ‘Park Night’ events including work by artists Fleur Melbourn, Marianna Simnett, and Jesse Darling. www.serpentinegalleries.org
