Serpentine Pavilion 2025 to be designed by Marina Tabassum

A Capsule in Time is the name of the new edition of the Serpentine Pavilion in London for 2025. The project explores the relationship between time and architecture.

The Serpentine Galleries have announced that Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum and her practice, Marina Tabassum Architects (Mta), have been selected to design the 24th Serpentine Pavilion, which will open on 6 June 2025 at Serpentine South in London. The 2025 edition, entitled A Capsule in Time, will mark an important anniversary: the 25th year of the famous project that began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid's pavilion.

After the success of Minsuk Cho's 2024 Pavilion and Mass Studies, which emptied the centre to focus on the edges, Marina Tabassum focuses on the interaction between time, memory and space, bringing a perspective deeply rooted in the socio-ecological context of her native Bangladesh.

Winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the famous Bait ur Rouf Mosque, Tabassum is known for her innovative and conscious approach to combining modernity and tradition. Founded in 2005, her practice Mta addresses social, environmental and cultural issues, with projects ranging from climate resilience to modular housing for marginalised communities.

Pavilion 2025 is distinguished by its structure composed of four wooden capsules with semi-transparent facades, designed to create a play of light and shadow reminiscent of the traditional Shamiyana curtains of South Asia. The central space is occupied by the courtyard built around a large tree, which will serve as a hub for events and meetings, and prospectively frames the bell tower of the Serpentine South.

The design includes a kinetic element: one of the capsules will be mobile, transforming the space into an ever-changing place open to the community. 

“When conceiving our design, we reflected on the transient nature of the commission which appears to us as a capsule of memory and time. The relationship between time and architecture is intriguing: between permanence and impermanence, of birth, age and ruin; architecture aspires to outlive time. Architecture is a tool to live behind legacies, fulfilling the inherent human desire for continuity beyond life. In the Bengal delta, architecture is ephemeral as dwellings change locations with the rivers shifting courses. Architecture becomes memories of the lived spaces continued through tales” explains Marina Tabassum.

The pavilion will be open until October 2025 and will be at the heart of the Serpentine's interdisciplinary activities, including performances, encounters and cultural projects. 

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