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Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has created a shingle-covered Serpentine Pavilion that draws on the ancient building cultures of Cumbria, UK. Situated on the grounds of The Serpentine Gallery in London's Kensington Gardens, the artwork features a 61-tonne slate canopy and is supported by a series of white poles. “This is an attempt to supplement traditional architecture with modern methodologies and concepts, to create in this place an expanse of scenery [more...]

Late May, and the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale has just opened to the public. Inside the city’s ancient former armoury, perspiring visitors juggle fans, cameras and programmes as they crowd around the exhibits in their hundreds. Tucked away towards the end of the Corderie – the building once used to build mooring ropes for Venetian naval fleets – lies an intimate sanctuary from the chaos and the baking heat. Hidden [more...]

Frida Escobedo, the youngest person yet to design a temporary Pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London, has recently sold her creation to international spa and wellness company, Therme Group. According to Architects' Journal, Therme Group, which is perhaps most famous for operating Therme Bucharest–the largest thermal leisure facility ever developed in Europe on a greenfield site–made overtures to and later reached a deal with Escobedo’s Mexico-based firm in order [more...]

The 2016 Serpentine Pavilion installation, designed by renowned architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), has now opened in Toronto having been rebuilt in the Canadian city. Originally designed for Kensington Gardens in London for the Serpentine Pavilion event – an annual architectural installation in the English capital commissioned by the Serpentine Galleries – the structure has been created out of 1,802 fibreglass 'blocks' that create a wall at the top, [more...]

Environmental artist Christo has completed his latest mammoth temporary structure: a 20m stack of barrels floating in Hyde Park’s Serpentine Lake. The London Mastaba, Christo’s first outdoor public work in the UK, is formed of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform. Together they rise up to create a flat-roofed shape with sloping sides that first originated thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. Construction began in April by JK [more...]

Mexican architect Frida Escobedo's Serpentine Pavilion will open in Kensington Gardens, London on Friday (15 June). Escobedo’s courtyard-based design harnesses a “subtle interplay of light, water and geometry” and is inspired in part by the domestic architecture of Mexico, the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and British materials and history. The pavilion features a black steel frame, with stacks of cement roof tiles making up the [more...]

Award-winning Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has been commissioned to design the 2018 iteration of the Serpentine Pavilion. The Serpentine Pavilion programme, which began in 2000, sees an architect who has never built in the UK create a temporary summer pavilion and café space in Kensington Gardens. Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Sou Fujimoto, SANAA, Bjarke Ingels Group and Diébédo Francis Kéré – whose tree-inspired 2017 structure has [more...]

The Serpentine Pavilion programme – one of the highlights of the UK's architectural calendar – is coming to Beijing in 2018. A major international agreement has been struck between Chinese retail giant WF Central and the Serpentine Galleries, which organises the long-running annual pavilion showcase in London’s Kensington Gardens. The inaugural pavilion has been designed by Chinese firm JIAKUN Architects, and it is set to open in May on the [more...]

Diébédo Francis Kéré’s acclaimed 2017 Serpentine Pavilion – one of London’s architectural highlights this year – has found a new home in Malaysia. The ILHAM Gallery in Kuala Lumpur has announced it has been able to acquire the popular pavilion “due to the generous donations by our philanthropic friends and supporters”. The structure will be transported to Malaysia early next year, and ILHAM plans to eventually install it in a [more...]

International developer Knight Dragon has unveiled its plans for a new London leisure district featuring affordable workshops for the capital's creatives. Billed as the first purpose-built district designed for London’s creative industries, the Design District will provide a permanent base for over 1,800 people working in the fields of design, art, technology, crafts, music, food and digital innovation. Rents will average £25 (US$33, €28) per square foot. The discrict is [more...]

An adaptable performance installation designed by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of architecture practice OMA has opened to the public in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens today (2 October). Inspired by ancient amphitheatres, the MPavilion 2017 is shaped by two-tiered grandstands – one fixed and the other rotatable – and covered by a floating roof structure. The 19×19m (204x204sq ft) aluminium clad structure will host a free programme of talks, workshops [more...]

This year’s Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré, has been unveiled in London’s Hyde Park. Speaking to CLAD, the architect said the high-profile commission had given him an “exciting opportunity to explore new ideas, new ways of shaping space, new materials and new ways of using materials.” His pavilion, designed “to bring a sense of light and life” to the park, was inspired by the tree that serves as [more...]

The United Nation’s global strategy on sustainable development will be put under the spotlight at a forthcoming London conference, which will see some of the world's best-known architects discuss the biggest issues facing the built environment. A programme of events and keynote speeches will take place around the British capital between 3 and 7 July for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Week, with the theme for the [more...]

Three of AECOM’s leading engineers have told CLADglobal how they used advanced in digital technology to complete this year’s Serpentine Pavilion in London. Director Jon Leach, associate director Amy Koerbel and principal engineer Michael Orr explained how virtual and augmented reality software allowed architect Diébédo Francis Kéré to virtually walk around his full-scale structure in the earliest stages of the design process, helping his team and AECOM to translate his [more...]

This year's Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré, has been unveiled today (20 June) in London’s Hyde Park. At a press launch, the architect told CLADglobal that the high-profile commission had given him an “exciting opportunity to explore new ideas, new ways of shaping space, new materials and new way of using materials.” His pavilion, designed “to bring a sense of light and life” to the park, was inspired [more...]

The organisers behind Melbourne’s annual MPavilion have officially revealed the design of the structure it is building for 2017: an adaptable amphitheatre created by OMA’s Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten. MPavilion 2017 “brings to life a flexible space that can function as a stage, tribune or even playground.” The design blurs the lines between inside and outside spaces by covering the amphitheatre with a semi-transparent floating roof. A circular wooden [more...]

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced that former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama will deliver the keynote speech on the opening day of the 2017 AIA Conference on Architecture. Obama will address AIA members as part of the organisation’s annual Conference on Architecture, which will take place in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center from 27 to 29 April. Obama leads a host of [more...]

British architect Asif Khan has revealed the first visualisations of ‘We Are Energy’ – the UK pavilion he is designing for the 2017 International Exposition in Astana, Kazakhstan. The images reveal a domed tent-like space, surrounded on the outside by a 360 degree display screen. The 2,200sq m (23,600sq ft) pavilion, which is scheduled to be pre-built to shell and core by the Expo organisers, will be illuminated by electric [more...]

Here are some of the stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from the Serpentine Pavilion’s next architect to the world’s first ‘bird airport’. Monday • In an exclusive interview with CLAD, the architect who oversaw the creation of Lisbon’s sparkling new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology explains the inspiration behind the acclaimed design. Read here. • Architecture studio HKS have been brought on board to design h.Club LA; [more...]