This time, the architectural program of the Serpentine Gallery has significantly expanded compared to previous years: in addition to the already traditional Summer Pavilion in Kensington Gardens, four temporary summer houses were erected, inspired by the nearby Queen Carolina Temple - a park pavilion in the style of classicism (1734).
All program participants meet its main requirement: they have not yet built a single permanent structure in England (temporality is especially relevant in the case of Briton Asif Khan, the author of the Coca-Cola pavilion at the London 2012 Olympics and other similar projects). In addition to Khan, among the participants - the theorist of architecture Iona Friedman, the German bureau Barkow Leibinger and the Nigerian architect, winner of the Silver Lion of this year's Venice Biennale Kunle Adeyemi (NLÉ bureau) - they all built a summer house - as well as the founder of BIG Bjarke Ingels entrusted the actual summer pavilion.
We wrote about their projects in detail at the time of their presentation to the public in February 2016, but still, let us recall the essence of the idea of each of the participants.
The Bjarke Ingels pavilion demonstrates the transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional form, it is composed of hollow blocks, "boxes", which are glued together from fiberglass sheets measuring 40 x 50 cm. The blocks are connected to each other using aluminum braces. Due to the fact that the "boxes" are without ends, the pavilion turned out to be permeable. During the day, the Harrods Café will be open, and in the evening there will be round tables, concerts and performances, as in all previous seasons of the Serpentine Gallery's summer program.
The summer house of Kunle Adeyemi is a spatial "imprint" of the Temple of Queen Carolina, made, like its original, from sandstone.
The architects of Barkow Leibinger were inspired by the theme of a circular panorama and rotation, or rather, by the now defunct pavilion, designed by William Kent, which revolved around its axis: this 18th century building was located nearby.
Jonah Friedman's object is based on his concept of "Spatial City", which the theorist has been developing since the late 1950s. It is a modular metal structure that can be easily disassembled and, if desired, assembled in a different configuration.
Asif Khan tried to reconstruct the plan of the architect of the Temple of Queen Carolina - at sunrise on her birthday, May 1, when looking from the pavilion, the sun's rays were reflected from the surface of the pond. Now this effect has disappeared due to the bridge built later, and now Han is recreating it with the help of a reflective platform in the center of his structure.
All five structures will stand in Kensington Gardens until October 9, and then they will be dismantled and sold at a charity auction.
