SERPENTINE PAVILION in London, England by BIG

Article source: BIG

For the Serpentine Pavilion 2016, we have attempted to design a structure that embodies multiple aspects that are often perceived as opposites: a structure that is free-form ret rigorous, modular yet sculptural, both transparent and opaque, both box and blob.

Image Courtesy © BIG

• Architects: BIG
• Project: SERPENTINE PAVILION
• Location: London, England, United Kingdom
• Partners-in-Charge: BjarkeIngels, Thomas Christoffersen
• Project Leader: Maria Sole Bravo
• Team: Aaron Powers, Alice Cladet, Claire Thomas, Daniel Sundlin, Jakob Lange, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, KristianHindsberg, KristofferNegendahl, Lorenz Krisai, Maria Holst, Maxwell Moriyama, Rune Hansen, Tianze Li, Tore Banke, Wells Barber
• Collaborators: AKT II, BIG IDEAS, Dinesen Gulve, Fiberline Composites A/S, SAPA Extrusions Denmark A/S
• Client: Serpentine Galleries
• Status: In Progress
• Size in m2: 300
• Date: 22/02/2016

Image Courtesy © BIG

We decided to work with one of the most basic elements of architecture: the brick wall. Rather than clay bricks or stone blocks – the wall is erected from extruded fiberglass frames stacked on top of each other. The wall is pulled apart to form a cavity within it, to house the events of the Pavilion’s programme. The unzipping of the wall turns the line into a surface, transforming the wall into a space. A complex three-dimensional environment is created that can be explored and experienced in a variety of ways: inside and outside. At the top, the wall appears like a straight line, while the bottom of it forms a sheltered valley at the entrance of the Pavilion and an undulating hillside towards the park.

Image Courtesy © BIG

The unzipped wall creates a cave-like canyon lit through the fiberglass frames and the gaps between the shifted boxes as well as through the translucent resin of the fiberglass. As a result, the shifting overlaps as well as the movement and presence of people outside create a lively play of light and shadow on the cave walls within.

The materials include wooden floors and extruded Fiberline profiles, providing every surface with a warm glow and linear texture – from the mesh of woven glass fibers to the undulating lines of the grain of the wood.

Image Courtesy © BIG

This simple manipulation of the archetypical space-defining garden wall creates a presence in the Park that changes as you move around it and through it. The North-South elevation of the Pavilion is a perfect rectangle. The East-West elevation is an undulating sculptural silhouette. Towards the East-West, the Pavilion is completely opaque and material. Towards the North-South, it is entirely transparent and practically immaterial. As a result, presence becomes absence, orthogonal becomes curvilinear, structure becomes gesture and box becomes blob.

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Image Courtesy © BIG

Tags: England, London

Categories: Cultural Center, Pavilion

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2016 at 3:02 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.