Serpentine Pavilion 2002

INFORMATION

After building the pavilion for Brugge 2002 Toyo Ito was assigned by Serpentine’s Gallery in London for building another, bigger pavilion. He had only 6 months to build it. This temporary pavilion will be there for 3 months.

"The Serpentine Gallery anually comissions international architects of world-wide acclaim to design a pavilion on the gallery's lawn, that provides a unique showcase for contemporary architectural practice. The pavilion will be host to a special programme of film screenings, talks, the BBC proms and café"

Like before, the architect is experimenting with the light aluminium material and he is trying to add a certain transparency to his work, which has been a very important aspect in his career over the last few years.

Two designs were introduced for this assignment. The first shows a strong resemblance to the design used for Brugge. This one, however, has a lot of more irregular plates that combine the aluminium materials and make the building a firm and solid construction. In the second design an entire pattern of lines make sure that the pavilion is solid. This pattern is based on a square, which is also the shape of the pavilion. Every line in this square supports other lines.

Due a short time to design and build the pavillion several things were decided as they happened. That’s why the pavillion’s white and not aluminum colour.

Special thanks for Ludwig Abache who took the time to take pictures of the whole building process. His site is really worth a visit.

HOW TO VISIT

the pavilion has been reconstructed on the site of battersea power station. when you arrive in london by eurostar look when you pass, and you might see it.