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Serpentine Pavilion 2014

Chilean architect Smiljan Radić is the designer of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion: a white fibreglass shell inspired by papier mâché wrapped around a balloon and by the architectural follies.

Windows become frames that narrate the space

A home filled with peace, built with a few essential gestures and a palette of materials in harmony with the surrounding landscape. The anthracite-colored windows by Edilpiù take center stage in this visual narrative.

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“The Serpentine 2014 Pavilion is part of the history of small romantic constructions seen in parks or large gardens, the so-called follies, which were hugely popular from the end of the sixteenth Century to the start of the nineteenth.

In general, follies appear as ruins or have been worn away by time, displaying an extravagant, surprising and often archaic form. These characteristics artificially dissolve the temporal and physical limits of the constructions into their natural surroundings. The 2014 Pavilion takes these principals and applies them using a contemporary architectural language.

The unusual shape and sensual qualities of the Pavilion have a strong physical impact on the visitor, especially juxtaposed with the classical architecture of the Serpentine Gallery. From the outside, visitors see a fragile shell in the shape of a hoop suspended on large quarry stones. Appearing as if they had always been part of the landscape, these stones are used as supports, giving the Pavilion both a physical weight and an outer structure characterised by lightness and fragility.

Smiljan Radic, Serpentine Pavilion 2014, Kensington Garden London. Photo © Iwan Baan — Smiljan Radic, Serpentine Pavilion 2014, Kensington Garden, London. Photo © Offenbach

The shell, which is white, translucent and made of fibreglass, contains an interior that is organised around an empty patio at ground level, creating the sensation that the entire volume is floating. The simultaneously enclosed and open volumes of the structure explore the relationship between the surrounding Kensington Gardens and the interior of the Pavilion. The floor is grey wooden decking, as if the interior were a terrace rather than a protected interior space.

Smiljan Radic, Serpentine Pavilion 2014, Kensington Garden London. Photo © Offenbach — Smiljan Radic, Serpentine Pavilion 2014, Kensington Garden, London. Photo © Offenbach

At night, the semi-transparency of the shell, together with a soft amber-tinted light, draws the attention of passers-by like lamps attracting moths.

The Pavilion is a development of some of my earlier projects, especially the papier-mâché model for The Castle of the Selfish Giant (2010), based on the Oscar Wilde story, and the Mestizo Restaurant, Santiago (2005–07).” said Smiljan Radić, designer of the fourteenth Serpentine Pavilion.

From 26 June until 19 October 2014
Serpentine Pavilion 2014, Kensington Garden, London
Designer: Smiljan Radić

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