Serpentine pavilion and four summer houses open to public

Serpentine Galleries’ 2016 pavilion and four summer houses are now open to the public.

The 16th annual pavilion has been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), while four newly commissioned summer houses have been designed by Kunlé Adeyemi – NLÉ (Amsterdam/Lagos), Barkow Leibinger (Berlin/New York), Yona Friedman (Paris) and Asif Khan (London).

Inspiration for the summer houses comes from Queen Caroline’s Temple, a classical style summer house built in 1734 and located close to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London.

BIG’s pavilion design (above) features an ‘unzipped wall’ that is transformed from straight line to three-dimensional space. By day, the structure will house a café and free family activities, whilst at night it will become a space for the Serpentine’s Park Nights programme of performative works by artists, writers and musicians.

Kunlé Adeyemi’s summer house is an inverse replica of Queen Caroline’s Temple, reinterpriting its robust form, space and materials.

Barkow Leibinger were inspired by another, now defunct, 18th century pavilion that was designed by William Kent, who also designed the Queen’s temple. It rotated and offered 360 degree views of the park.

Yona Friedman’s summer house is a modular structure that can be assembled and disassembled in different formations. It continues the architect’s project, La Ville Spatiale (Spatial City), which began in the late 1950s.

Asif Khan’s design is inspired by the fact that Queen Caroline’s Temple was positioned in a way that would allow it to catch the sunlight from the Serpentine lake.

The Serpentine’s pavilion commission was first conceived in 2000 by Julia Peyton-Jones, and has become an international site for architectural experimentation, presenting projects by some of the world’s best known architects. Previous commissions include Frank Gehry (2008), Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei (2012) and SelgasCano (2015).

Serpentine Summer Houses 2016 are open to the public 10 June to 9 October 2016. www.serpentinegalleries.org

Images:
1. Serpentine Pavilion 2016 designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG); (10 June – 9 October); Photo © Iwan Baan
2. Serpentine Summer House 2016 designed by Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ); (10 June – 9 October); Photo © Iwan Baan
3. Serpentine Summer House 2016 designed by Barkow Leibinger; (10 June – 9 October); Photo © Iwan Baan
4. Serpentine Summer House 2016 designed by Yona Friedman; (10 June – 9 October); Photo © Iwan Baan
5. Serpentine Summer House 2016 designed by Asif Khan; (10 June – 9 October); Photo © Iwan Baan
6. Queen Caroline’s Temple, Kensington Gardens, London; Photo by Garry Knight

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