Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012, London, by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei

Every year, in the past 12 years a certain temporary architectural project is being held in the Serpentine Gallery at Kensington Gardens in London, which is known as the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion.

For its realization, the Gallery has always selected outstanding contemporary architects. This year the selected team has been composed by Swiss architects, born in 1950 in Basel, namely, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, and by a Chinese conceptual artist, born in 1957 in Beijing. Ai Weiwei also works as an architect, photographer, curator and he is a globally recognised human rights activist, the same design team behind Beijing's superb “Bird's Nest Stadium”.

“Bird's Nest Stadium” Photograph: creativeclass.com

Thanks to the reputation of their innovations, creativity and the involvement in the previous works, the selected team had generated much expectation to the public. And as the result, there is a Pavilion with archaeological references to the former pavilions that incorporates elements of the eleven previous structures and it also has a conceptual reference to this exciting year for London, representing a connection between the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In fact, this year is the twelfth commission in the Gallery's annual series, Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. The team involved has created a space for the pavilion by digging under the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery garden that was used by the previous pavilions, shaping in it a sculptural arena cladding entirely in cork, a sustainable building material chosen for its unique qualities and to echoing the excavated soil. Eleven columns, characterising each past pavilion and the twelfth column representing the current structure support – a floating platform roof filled with water to reflect the London’s sky and the surrounded trees. The roof platform can be evacuated from the water and could be used as a stage for performances.

General view of the pavilion 2012 Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

 

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion operates as a public venue for Park Nights, the Gallery's programme of public talks and cultural events, it is also an open place for public to share, relax and contemplate.

I would like to add that I have had the opportunity to visit some of the previous pavilions, and I would like to share some of the pictures I had taken, in my following posts, but in this post, I just want to make a reference to the present pavilion that, unfortunately, I have not visited yet. Since I have carried out a research, I am suggesting some links to you in case you are interested in getting to know more about this interesting pavilion 2012 as well as about the Serpentine's acclaimed annual Architectural commissions.

The Serpentine Summer Pavilion will be open to the public until 14 October 2012