Under the terms of the gallery's architectural program, which has entered its ninth year this year, an order for the construction of a temporary pavilion in Kensington Park can only be received by an architect who has not built anything in England. In Gehry's case, this situation is unlikely to change: due to the collapse of the British real estate market, his project of a multifunctional complex for Brighton Hove was frozen, and he may have time for new works in England: the architect himself admits that he has only two - three years of professional activity.
But for now, on the lawn in central London, you can see the quintessence of Frank Gehry's creative method, avoiding the established forms that prevail among his colleagues in the deconstructivist "team" like Daniel Libeskind. The Serpentine Gallery 2008 pavilion shows the basis of his work - the constant search for an architectural language different from the "traditional", its development and the most direct material expression. This construction clearly demonstrates that Gehry's key work is not the shiny titanium "cladding" of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, but his own house in Santa Monica, a small "testing ground" of architectural ideas, where they were tested on the most modest scale and material.
Frank Gehry's London building is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's catapult designs, as well as wooden summer houses. A café in the afternoon, an auditorium and an exhibition hall in the evening, it is a structure of wooden beams and glass panels, erected on two powerful "arches" of steel sheathed with Douglas fir wood.
Its height is 16 m, area is more than 500 sq. There are amphitheater benches inside, where visitors to the park and spectators of the events included in the pavilion's program can sit (various cultural events will take place there until October 19).
Despite the seemingly chaotic structure of this building, where each beam or panel seems to contradict the rest, it is distinguished by excellent acoustic qualities. For Gehry himself, the Serpentine Pavilion is not only a milestone in terms of construction in England: on his project, he first collaborated with his youngest son Samuel, who recently received an architectural education.
