Smiljan Radic at the Serpentine Gallery
Every year, the Serpentine Gallery invites a renowned architect to design and build a pavilion at the gallery beside the lake in Kensington Gardens, London. We must admit that the installation of the Serpentine Pavilion is definitely a key event in our calendar, and we are always looking forward to seeing which architect will be invited and what wonder they will offer us. The temporary structures are always fabulous and never disappoint!
2010: Barbed’s previous involvement with the Serpentine Gallery
Back in 2010, our team at Barbed was honoured to contribute to the installation created by French architect Jean Nouvel for the Serpentine Gallery. That year, the creator of the Arab World Institute and of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, also acclaimed for his work on the Copenhagen Concert Hall for instance, had designed a pavilion all in bright red, reminding of the red used on the typically British telephone booths, letter boxes and London buses. We provided the Serpentine Gallery with outdoor furniture (mainly tables and hammocks) to match the vivid red of the temporary pavilion, allowing visitors to sit down, relax and enjoy the view of the fantastic design.
2014: Smiljan Radi?’s Pavilion
Radi? is an architect from Chile who has yet to become famous in the UK, but who has done some amazing work in his country, such as the Selfish Giant’s Castle (inspired by the Oscar Wilde story) and the House for the Poem of the Right Angle in Vilches. The romantic pavilion he designed for the Serpentine Gallery – which the architect likens to a folly, like the romantic constructions so fashionable until the nineteenth century - is circular and made of fibreglass, which makes it translucent, and its wide and many openings make you feel like you still are in the garden when you are actually inside the structure. The futuristic-looking pavilion stands on large sandstones, which gives the amazing and paradoxal impression that it has just risen from the ground and has always belonged there. In short, we love it!
The Serpentine Pavilion designed by Smiljan Radi? opened to the public on 26th June and will be welcoming visitors until 19th October 2014. This is a perfect outing for a sunny weekend, giving you the opportunity to get some fresh air in the beautiful Kensington Gardens while taking in some amazing artwork. If you didn’t know what to do this weekend, now you do!
- 4th July 2014
