Summer of Sustainability - Serpentine Pavilion, London.

Join Catherine Byrne, Interior Design programme leader, to explore the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion, Kensington Gardens, London, on Thursday 3rd August at 11am. The day session will be an opportunity to talk with Catherine and other students about your studies, and your understanding of sustainability in a built environment.

The Serpentine Pavilion project began in 2000, the first temporary structure designed by architect Zaha Hadid. The premise for this annual architectural project was that each pavilion should provide a space to be used for summer events adjacent to the Serpentine Gallery in the park. It was also to be designed by an international architect that had not - at the time - completed another built project in England.

Over the last 23 years there have been 21 pavilions constructed on the site, and many internationally recognised designers, architects and artists including Rem Koolhaas, Olafur Eliasson, Daniel Libeskind, Ai Weiwei and Diébédo Francis Kéré, associated with the project.

This year's pavilion is designed by Lina Ghotmeh Architecture. Ghotmeh describes herself as a ‘Humanist architect’ whose practice aims to embody a sustainable approach to making spaces.

“. . . our practice is more than ever on a quest for a fair and ecological future. . . projects derive their aesthetics and shape from their close relationship to nature becoming the very expression of the context and material out of which they are carved.”

The initial idea behind the Serpentine Pavilion project was that each new temporary structure should be dismantled at the end of the summer, and relocated for a permanent purpose. This was to ensure that any materials used did not contribute to the built environments alarming practice/ease of demolishing built spaces and replacing them with newer structures. Over the years several, but not all, of the pavilions have been dismantled and then re-erected at a new site for a new purpose. The 2013 pavilion, designed by Sou Fujimoto, is now in the National Art Gallery, Tirana, Albania, where it houses exhibitions. The 2014 pavilion, by Smiljan Radić, is now sited in the Oudolf garden at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Somerset. There are others that have been relocated and repurposed; see if you can find out which by researching for yourself.

Ghotmehs’ 2023 pavilion is named À table, and in her own words she describes it as “a French call to get together around the same table. When you’re young your parents would tell you to come ‘à table’ and get together to eat, discuss…” so come prepared to sit, and bring some lunch if you’d like to eat, and we will discuss…

We will take a look around, explore the space and see what we think of it. There’ll be time for sketching, both the interior space and the surrounding environment,

For a brief introduction to the project, try to watch this short film before you arrive:

Lina Ghotmeh creates À Table Serpentine Pavilion as a space for exchange (3mins)

https://vimeo.com/832870936

Featured image: Photo by David Clode on Unsplash