Serpentine Gallery pavilions - Philip Jodidio

Ten years of temporary pavilions by top architects

Since 2000, the Serpentine Gallery
in London's Kensington Gardens has called on some of the world's top
architects to design summer pavilions - temporary structures that are
erected next to the Gallery itself for a three-month period. The
Serpentine, which was built in 1934 as a tea pavilion, opened in 1970 as
a showplace for exhibitions of modern and contemporary artists ranging
from Matthew Barney to Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelley, Louise Bourgeois or
Rachel Whiteread. It is the only public modern and contemporary art
gallery in central London, which maintains free admission and is open
seven days a week.
The pavilions are the work of international architects or design teams
who at the time of the Serpentine's invitation have not completed a
building in England. A maximum of six months from invitation to
completion is allotted.
The only architecture program of its type in
the world, the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions attract up to 250,000
visitors each summer. The architect Richard Rogers has stated, "The
pavilions, erected for reatively little money, are unbelievably good. I
coudn't single one out that I have liked more than the others - they
have all been masterpieces."

The projects completed or envisaged include the work of

• Zaha Hadid, 2000


• Daniel Libeskind, 2001


• Toyo Ito, 2002


• Oscar Niemeyer, 2003


• MVRDV, 2004 (un-realised)


• Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, 2005


• Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, 2006


• Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007


• Frank Gehry, 2008


• SANAA, 2009


• Jean Nouvel, 2010


• Other works such as Zaha Hadid's temporary 2006 installation Lilas are included in the book as well.

Interviews
of Serpentine Director Julia Peyton-Jones and Exhibitions Director
Hans-Ulrich Obrist complete the description of the pavilions,
illustrated by the original drawings by each architect and photos of the
completed works.