Serpentine Pavilion, via Serpentine Galleries
The Serpentine Pavilion, the annual summer architecture project hosted by Serpentine Galleries, has opened in London, a swirling series of multicolored chambers and hallways by Spanish architecture firm SelgasCano (the first commission from a Spanish firm) resting on the lawn outside of the museum galleries.
Serpentine Pavilion, via Serpentine Galleries
Inside the Serpentine Pavilion, via Serpentine Galleries
Created by husband and wife team José Selgas and LucÃa Cano, the Pavilion marks its 15th anniversary with a markedly transient work that still manages to feel considerably more solid and stationary than some past iterations of the series.  Created from a translucent, multi-coloured fluorine-based polymer, the pavilion glows from both the inside and out, diffusing light through its thin membrane, and creating a tactile sense of a skin or stained glass surface in equal measure.
Selgascano, via Serpentine Galleries
The result is a space that makes much of its temporary intent, while emphasizing a rooted physical experience.  “The spatial qualities of the Pavilion only unfold when accessing the structure and being immersed within it,” the firm said in a statement.  “Each entrance allows for a specific journey through the space, characterized by color, light and irregular shapes with surprising volumes.”  Visitors can pass through multiple points of egress, including a concealed doorway that doubles down on the pavilion’s playful visual construction.  In other spaces, a lack of polymer brings the physical underpinning of the space to the foreground, underscoring a stark, white piping structure that immediately calls to mind a quite literal skeleton.  At the same time, the strips of material and their occasionally ragged presentation make for a celebratory atmosphere, as if the space was intentionally decked out in preparation for a grand fête.”
Serpentine Pavilion, via Serpentine Galleries
Considering its structure, and the language used to describe it, the pavilion makes for an interesting continuation of recent architectural trends towards bodily forms and their execution on a grand scale.  The pavilion will remain open through October 18th.
— D. Creahan
Read more:
Serpentine Pavilion 2015 [Serpentine Galleries]
A journey through color and light: New Serpentine Pavilion debuts in London [CNN]
SelgasCano’s Serpentine Pavilion [Arch Daily]
