This year's summer pavilion is a shooting star...
Each year, Serpentine Galleries commissions a different architect to create a summer pavilion. It's then used all throughout the summer months as a place for events, ice creams and Instagram poses.
This year's temporary structure is designed by Seoul-based architect Minsuk Cho and Mass Studios. They've put together a structure reminiscent of a shooting star or fairy wand when seen from above.
This will be the 23rd pavilion to adorn the grounds of the Serpentine's south gallery in Kensington Gardens.
Titled Archipelagic Void, the Pavilion features five themed 'islands' designed around an open space, which is apparently inspired by a form of traditional Korean house. The press release gives more detail:
Mass Studies envisions a void defined by a series of smaller, adaptable structures located at its periphery, intertwining with the park's natural ecology and its temporal conditions. These structures will form a constellation that shapes a singular central circular void. Around the void, each structure of this multifaceted Pavilion will be envisioned as a "content machine" each individually named and serving a different purpose.
Whereabouts did you stop reading? We got as far as "temporal conditions" before glazing over. Happily, these summer pavilions always add up to more than the sum of their tortuous artspeak when visited in person. This one reckons to have a 'library' space, a 'tea' space and a 'play' space, which should jolly things along.
Serpentine Pavilion is at Serpentine South from 7 June to 27 October 2024. Entrance is free
