The commission for the design of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion—a prestigious project for artists and architects connected to the Serpentine Galleries in London’s Kensington Gardens—has gone to LANZA atelier, a Mexico City–based architecture studio founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo. The unveiling on June 6 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Serpentine Pavilion, which plays home to live events and programs from the summer into the fall—and which will be accompanied this year by a dedicated architecture program in Serpentine South in tribute to the legacy of Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion in 2000.
“For this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, LANZA atelier took its inspiration from the English architecture feature known as a serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall which forms one side of the pavilion,” reads a press release about the commission. “This type of brick wall, composed of alternating curves, originated in ancient Egypt and was later introduced to England by Dutch engineers.”
A second wall in the architectural plan “works in harmony with the tree canopy without disrupting it,” while a translucent roof “rests lightly on brick columns evoking a grove of trees.” LANZA atelier said the concept “both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation, and pause.”
Bettina Korek, the Serpentine’s chief executive, said the Pavilion commission “offers a rare brief: to test ambitious ideas in an open, accessible setting. Conceived as a structure that extends beyond its walls, the Pavilion connects architecture, landscape, and people.”
Serpentine artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist said “LANZA atelier’s architecture always involves a deep engagement with the local context, materials and lived experience. In their own words, they create contemporary spaces whose energy can last.” He added that the Pavilion will be “a content machine with lectures, film screenings and performances.”
