The Design Event of 2015: Serpentine Pavilion Designers Revealed
NEWS: Spanish architects, SelgasCano revealed as the 15th Serpentine Pavilion designers
Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre, Caseres, Spain 2005/2013, courtesy Hisao Suzuki
Now in its 15th edition, the Serpentine Gallery’s Summer Pavilion is always one of our favourite places in London during the summer – never mind the glamorous party on its opening night!
The latest architects to fulfil the Serpentine’s brief to create a multi-purpose space that can also accommodate a café (the café, is vital) are Spanish husband and wife duo, SelgasCano. Much like the Serpentine Pavilion 2014 designer, Smiljan Radić, José Selgas and Lucia Cano are emerging stars in the design world who have never worked in Britain before. This is part of an intriguing shift from the Serpentine Galleries away from star architects like Frank Gehry (2008), Zaha Hadid (2000), Rem Koolhaas (2006) and Ai Weiwei (2012), towards lesser known designers.
SelgasCano might not have earned their stripes in the UK yet, but they have already caused a stir internationally following exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum and MoMA, New York; MOT, Tokyo and for their part in the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, curated by Serpentine Pavilion 2009 designer, Kazuyo Sejima.
How will we recognise SelgasCano architecture?
With plans for the pavilion only released in February, we can only gauge our excitement for the temporary structure based on SelgasCano’s previous projects. In the Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre in Cáseres, Spain, nature and transparency are crucial to the award-winning architects’ way of working. So we can expect to see straight through the SelgasCano Serpentine Pavilion to the landscaped gardens of Hyde Park. We can also gleam clues from their Office in the Woods near Madrid: a trench cut into the forest floor that radiates with the light of shiny Mac computers. As in many of their designs, SelgasCano are not afraid to declare nature more important than architectural design. They also often make bold statements in using high spec technology, synthetic materials and bright colours in their work: words that rarely appear in the same sentence!
What did the architects have to say?
‘Garden and London will be the elements to show and develop in the Pavilion. For that we are going to use only one material as a canvas or both: the Transparency. That ‘material’ has to be explored in all its structural possibilities, avoiding any other secondary material that supports it and the most advanced technologies will be needed to be employed to accomplish that transparency. A good definition for the pavilion can be taken from J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan author): it aims to be as a ‘Betwixt-and-Between’.’
As the first SelgasCano construction in the UK, we can’t wait to explore this playful and innovative pavilion right on our doorstep.
The latest architects to fulfil the Serpentine’s brief to create a multi-purpose space that can also accommodate a café (the café, is vital) are Spanish husband and wife duo, SelgasCano. Much like the Serpentine Pavilion 2014 designer, Smiljan Radić, José Selgas and Lucia Cano are emerging stars in the design world who have never worked in Britain before. This is part of an intriguing shift from the Serpentine Galleries away from star architects like Frank Gehry (2008), Zaha Hadid (2000), Rem Koolhaas (2006) and Ai Weiwei (2012), towards lesser known designers.
SelgasCano might not have earned their stripes in the UK yet, but they have already caused a stir internationally following exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum and MoMA, New York; MOT, Tokyo and for their part in the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, curated by Serpentine Pavilion 2009 designer, Kazuyo Sejima.
How will we recognise SelgasCano architecture?
With plans for the pavilion only released in February, we can only gauge our excitement for the temporary structure based on SelgasCano’s previous projects. In the Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre in Cáseres, Spain, nature and transparency are crucial to the award-winning architects’ way of working. So we can expect to see straight through the SelgasCano Serpentine Pavilion to the landscaped gardens of Hyde Park. We can also gleam clues from their Office in the Woods near Madrid: a trench cut into the forest floor that radiates with the light of shiny Mac computers. As in many of their designs, SelgasCano are not afraid to declare nature more important than architectural design. They also often make bold statements in using high spec technology, synthetic materials and bright colours in their work: words that rarely appear in the same sentence!
What did the architects have to say?
‘Garden and London will be the elements to show and develop in the Pavilion. For that we are going to use only one material as a canvas or both: the Transparency. That ‘material’ has to be explored in all its structural possibilities, avoiding any other secondary material that supports it and the most advanced technologies will be needed to be employed to accomplish that transparency. A good definition for the pavilion can be taken from J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan author): it aims to be as a ‘Betwixt-and-Between’.’
As the first SelgasCano construction in the UK, we can’t wait to explore this playful and innovative pavilion right on our doorstep.
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