BIG

BIG . photos: © Iwan Baan

For the Serpentine Pavilion 2016, we have attempted to design a structure that embodies multiple aspects that are often perceived as opposites: a structure that is free­form ret rigorous, modular yet sculptural, both transparent and opaque, both box and blob.
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We decided to work with one of the most basic elements of architecture: the brick wall. Rather than clay bricks or stone blocks – the wall is erected from extruded fiberglass frames stacked on top of each other. The wall is pulled apart to form a cavity within it, to house the events of the Pavilion’s programme. The unzipping of the wall turns the line into a surface, transforming the wall into a space. A complex three­dimensional environment is created that can be explored and experienced in a variety of ways: inside and outside. At the top, the wall appears like a straight line, while the bottom of it forms a sheltered valley at the entrance of the Pavilion and an undulating hillside towards the park.
The unzipped wall creates a cave­like canyon lit through the fiberglass frames and the gaps between the shifted boxes as well as through the translucent resin of the fiberglass. As a result, the shifting overlaps as well as the movement and presence of people outside create a lively play of light and shadow on the cave walls within.
The materials include wooden floors and extruded Fiberline profiles, providing every surface with a warm glow and linear texture – from the mesh of woven glass fibers to the undulating lines of the grain of the wood.
This simple manipulation of the archetypical space­defining garden wall creates a presence in the Park that changes as you move around it and through it. The North­South elevation of the Pavilion is a perfect rectangle. The East­West elevation is an undulating sculptural silhouette. Towards the East­West, the Pavilion is completely opaque and material. Towards the North­South, it is entirely transparent and practically immaterial. As a result, presence becomes absence, orthogonal becomes curvilinear, structure becomes gesture and box becomes blob.
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SERPENTINE PAVILION
location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
status: IN PROGRESS
Partners­ in ­Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen
Project Leader: Maria Sole Bravo
Team: Aaron Powers, Alice Cladet, Claire Thomas, Daniel Sundlin, Kai­Uwe Bergmann, Kristian Hindsberg, Lorenz Krisai, Maria Holst, Maxwell Moriyama, Rune Hansen, Tianze Li, Wells Barber