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30 June 2016

Serpentine Pavilion 2016

Francesca Tagliabue

by

For Londoners, summer brings the Serpentine Pavilion. For the sixteenth edition, a temporary pavilion located in the Kensington Gardens, in front of the Serpentine Gallery will be open until October 9th. The pavilion will host a caffè managed by Harrods, family activities, a program of performances, and musical Park Nights. After having been designed by big names including Zaha Hadid (2000), Oscar Niemeyer (2003), Frank Gehry (2008), and Herzog & De Meuron with Ai Weiwei (2012), it is BIG Bjarke Ingels Group’s turn. BIG started from the basic, architectural idea of a brick wall.

The pavilion is made of empty, 40×50 fiberglass boxes, curving upward and joining at the highest point to create a sort of “cavern” that can be entered from both sides. The 2016 pavilion plays on generally irreconcilable concepts: the form is free and rigorous, modular but sculptural, and perpendicular, yet organic. Rolling like a hill, pure white, the pavilion is surrounded by four summer Houses, temporary structures that complete the institute’s architectural project. They will “inhabit” the park for the rest of the summer.

WHERE: Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA, Regno Unito

For Londoners, summer brings the Serpentine Pavilion. For the sixteenth edition, a temporary pavilion located in the Kensington Gardens, in front of the Serpentine Gallery, will be open until October 9th. The pavilion will host a cafè managed by Harrods, family activities, a program of performances, and musical Park Nights. After having been designed by big names including Zaha Hadid (2000), Oscar Niemeyer (2003), Frank Gehry (2008), and Herzog & De Meuron with Ai Weiwei (2012), it is BIG Bjarke Ingels Group’s turn. BIG started from the basic, architectural idea of a brick wall. The pavilion is made of empty, 40×50 fiberglass boxes, curving upward and joining at the highest point to create a sort of “cavern” that can be entered from both sides. The 2016 pavilion plays on generally irreconcilable concepts: the form is free and rigorous, modular but sculptural, and perpendicular, yet organic. Rolling like a hill, pure white, the pavilion is surrounded by four summer Houses, temporary structures that complete the institute’s architectural project. They will “inhabit” the park for the rest of the summer.

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The Moodboarders is a glance into the design world, which, in all of its facets, captures the extraordinary even within the routine. It is a measure of the times. It is an antenna sensitive enough to pick-up on budding trends, emerging talents and neglected aesthetics. Instead of essays, we use brief tales to tune into the rhythm of our world. We travelled for a year without stopping, and seeing as the memory of this journey has not faded, we have chosen to edit a printed copy. We eliminated anything episodic, ephemeral or fading, maintaining a variety of articles that flow, without losing the element of surprise, the events caught taking place, and the creations having just bloomed.