The Serpentine Pavilion 2015, designed by Spanish architects selgascano, opens to the public today on the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens.
Serpentine Pavilion 2015 designed by selgascano. Photograph © Iwan Baan
This year, Serpentine Galleries celebrates the 15th anniversary of the world-renowned Pavilion commission which, each year, invites a different architect to design a temporary building in the gallery grounds.
Since its launch in 2000 the Serpentine Pavilion has become one of London’s most popular summer attractions and one of the top-ten most visited architectural and design exhibitions in the world.
The latest Pavilion is a multi-coloured polygonal structure which visitors can enter and exit at a number of different points, passing through a ‘secret corridor’ between the building’s outer and inner layers.
selgascano’s playful labyrinthine design was heavily influenced by the flow of people moving through London, particularly the way in which passengers negotiate the circuitous Tube network. The Pavilion’s park setting was also a significant factor in their thinking.
Discussing their commission Madrid-based duo José Selgas and Lucía Cano, who established selgascano in 1998, said their intention was to create a Pavilion which allowed the public to experience architecture through simple elements such as transparency, change and surprise.
“The spatial qualities of the Pavilion only unfold when accessing the structure and being immersed within it,” they explain.
“Each entrance allows for a specific journey through the space, characterised by colour, light and irregular shapes with surprising volumes.”
At the heart of the Pavilion is an open space which serves as a café during the day and as an event space during the evening when, lit from within, the structure takes on a psychedelic appearance.
Serpentine Pavilion 2015 designed by selgascano. photograph © Iwann Baan
Occupying London’s premier pop-up space is Fortnum & Mason, who are providing a variety of beverages, light bites and ice-cream, along with their signature Afternoon Tea Hamperling for those who fancy a picnic in the park.
Serpentine Galleries’ Director Julia Peyton-Jones, and Co-Director Hans Ulrich Obrist said; “We are proud to work with selgascano in this, the 15th year of a commission unique in the western world that continues to showcase some of the boldest and innovative designs in contemporary architecture internationally.
“In keeping with their reputation for playful designs and bold use of colour, selgascano’s design is an extraordinary chrysalis-like structure, as organic as the surrounding gardens. It is a place for people to meet in, to have coffee and to experience the live events we put on throughout the summer.”
selgascano’s work is characterised by their use of new technologies and synthetic materials. The majority of their buildings are in Spain and their commercial work includes the El ‘B’ Cartagena Auditorium and Congress Centre in Murcia and Office in the Woods near Madrid, which they designed for their own studio.
Serpentine Pavilion 2015 is sponsored by Goldman Sachs while AECOM with David Glover acted as advisors. It is supported by Stage One and the Gold Sponsor is Weil. The Serpentine Galleries Summer Season is supported by The Lars Windhorst Foundation.
The Pavilion will remain open to the public until 18 October, with the exception of July 2 and 3 when it will be closed for a private event.
