Indicative CGI © Sou Fujimoto Architects
The Serpentine Gallery has just unveiled its Summer Pavilion for 2013 and it looks like another impressive example of temporary architecture to help bring Hyde Park to life this summer. Created from white steel poles interlaced to create a lattice effect, the structure is inspired by and conjures up natural habitats including the nest, the forest and the cave, but it’s also got a playful kids den feel to it and the draw of the hive.
Designed by Japanese architect, Sou Fujimoto, it’s got a sparse quality to it, despite its impressive frame. Though it looks much more impressive at night with light flashing off the white steel bamboo-like shoots it’s also going to be one big climbing frame during the day as visitors fill it to look out on the park from the inside outside lookout.
According to Sou, “It is a really fundamental question how architecture is different from nature, or how architecture could be part of nature, or how they could be merged…what are the boundaries between nature and artificial things.” In his summer pavilion you have a clearly man made structure that is reminiscent of nature from the outside looking in, while providing an uninstructed view of the natural world around it from the outside looking in.
Viewed from below looking up it’s suddenly transformed into a cloud like mirage and viewed from above it could easily be a field of white flowers. The super structure spans 350 sq. m of ground just in front of Hyde Park’s Serpentine Gallery, which it seems to echo with a trace-like transparency.
The Summer Pavilion 2013 was unveiled by the Gallery on the 8th June 2013. It will be in place throughout the summer, giving you until the 20th October 2013 to visit, view, climb on, sit under, marvel at and eat your packed lunch under the cool new minimalist, nature blending piece of architecture.
There will also be a cafe situated in the middle of latticework social space, so if you forget your sandwiches and flask of bovril, you’ll be able to get a coffee and a piece of cake to while away a sunny day watching the world go by. Free to the public, the pavilion is also a great excuse to check out the latest installations at the Gallery too.
Sou Fujimoto is a widely regarded architect internationally, although the majority of his previous commissions have been developed in his native Japan, ranging from the smaller scale Wooden House and T House to the Musashino Art Museum and Library. The 2013 Summer Pavilion in Hyde Park’s Kensington Gardens is a cool introduction to the nature loving architect for the UK’s art and culture calendar.
