ARCHITECTURESERPENTINE GALLERY PAVILION 2011 BY PETER ZUMTHOR
Inviato da abitare
Photo by Oscar Ferrari
It will be open to the public on Friday, but somebody already entered the casket designed by Peter Zumthor for the Serpentine Gallery. Oscar Ferrari sent us these snaps from London, snaps that let us guess an efficacious project perfectly corresponding to the architect’s intents. If hortus conclusus was supposed to be, hortus conclusus seems to be… nevertheless only the real experience of the place, and not necessarily during the inauguration day, will confirm whether the Zumthor’s intention to create a space for relax, rest and even contemplation, in the midst of the Londoner park, has really come true…
Below the press release:
This year’s Pavilion is the 11th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 is designed by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, it is his first completed building in the UK and includes a specially created garden by the Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.
At the heart there is a garden that the architect hopes will inspire visitors to become observers. Zumthor says his design ‘aims to help its audience take the time to relax, to observe and then, perhaps, start to talk again – maybe not.’ The design emphasises the role the senses and emotions play in our experience of architecture. With a selection of materials Zumthor creates contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment, customising the building precisely to its purpose as a physical body and an object of emotional experience.
‘The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The building acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light. Through blackness and shadow one enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. This experience will be intense and memorable, as will the materials themselves – full of memory and time.’
The 2011 Pavilion is constructed of a lightweight timber frame wrapped with scrim and coated with a black Idenden over scrim. Exterior and interior walls with staggered doorways offer multiple paths for visitors to follow, guiding them to a central, hidden inner garden. The covered walkways and seating surrounding this central space create a serene environment from which visitors look onto the garden, the focus of the building.
Piet Oudolf is a prominent garden designer and a leading figure of the New Perennial planting movement. His award-winning designs emphasise the natural architecture of plants, using expressive drifts of grasses and herbaceous perennials to create gardens that evolve in form throughout the lives of the plants. These are chosen for their structure, form, texture and colour, showcasing many different varieties in his compositions.
Piet Oudolf said: “I am very pleased to be collaborating with Peter Zumthor and the Serpentine Gallery on this year’s Pavilion and to be part of this exciting project. My work aims to bring nature back into human surroundings and this Pavilion provides the perfect opportunity for people to reflect and relax in a contemplative garden away from the busy metropolis.”
The Serpentine’s Pavilion commission, conceived in 2000 by Gallery Director Julia Peyton- Jones, has become an international site for architectural experimentation and follows a decade of Pavilions by some of the world’s greatest architects. Each Pavilion is sited on the Gallery’s lawn for three months and the immediacy of the commission – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a unique model worldwide.
Zumthor’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion will operate as a public space and as a venue for Park Nights, the Gallery’s high-profile programme of public talks and events. Park Nights will culminate in the annual Serpentine Gallery Marathon in October, now in its sixth year. In 2006 the Park Nights programme included the renowned 24-hour Serpentine Gallery Interview Marathon, convened by Hans Ulrich Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas; in 2007, the Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon presented by artist Olafur Eliasson and Hans Ulrich Obrist; in 2008, Obrist led over 60 participants in the Serpentine Gallery Manifesto Marathon. These were followed in 2009 by the Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon and in 2010 by the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon.
Public opening dates
- 1 July – 16 October 2011
- 19 May – 27 June 2011
- 960 sqm
- 390 sqm (gross)
- 252 sqm internal garden space (net)
- 100 sqm transition space (net)
- 5.5 m height pavilion facade
- 2.7 m min height internal garden space
- Concrete strip foundations
- Timber frame super structure
- Sheet plywood covering
- Skin, black Idenden over scrim
- Bench, Prussian blue stained timber
- Floor, black Idenden with sand over scrim
- Recessed spot lights under cantilever soffit in internal garden space
- Pendant lighting
- External festoon lighting
- Black Idenden over scrim across entire pavilion, inside and outside, excluding the bench.
- Bench, Prussian blue stained timber
- Richly planted shrubs, flowers, grasses, according to the instruction of Piet Oudolf.
- Zinc coated steel table, folding
- Zinc coated steel chair, canvas seating, folding
Sponsored by Maybach
Advisors ArupStanhope plc
Platinum Sponsor Mace Group
Julia Peyton-Jones Hans Ulrich Obrist
Director, Serpentine Gallery Co-Director of Exhibitions
and Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes and
and Programmes Director of International Projects
