All About the Serpentine Pavilion

John Hill

29. November 2016

Bjarke Ingels in front of his 2016 Serpentine Pavilion (Photo: Screenshot)

The Serpentine Pavilion Programme, in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, has released a short film that presents the current pavilion and looks back at the history of the Serpentine Pavilion since its conception in 2000 by Serpentine Gallery Director Julia Peyton-Jones.

What started as a one-night-only structure designed by Zaha Hadid for the Serpentine's gala dinner mushroomed into a much-anticipated annual summer event and a barometer of cutting-edge architecture. The Serpentine Gallery has picked architects both young and old, famous and upcoming, with the only caveat that they haven't realized a project to date in the UK.

This year's pavilion, designed by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group (and featuring an expanded program with four more structures), was the last one for Peyton-Jones, who stepped down recently from her post as Director of the Serpentine Galleries. Her comments in the short film are accompanied by those from Serpentine CEO Yana Peel and Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist.