Serpentine Pavilion 2019
This year, the prestigious Serpentine Pavilion commission has been awarded to Japanese architect Junya Ishigami who will bring a cave-like canopy to Kensington Gardens this summer
Serpentine Pavilion 2019, Design Render, Exterior and Interior Views © Junya Ishigami + Associates
Forgoing functionality for aesthetic is a rare indulgence for many architects, but the great thing about the annual Serpentine Pavilion is that it offers some of the biggest names in the industry the freedom of uninhibited artistic expression. The result always sees wild and dreamlike structures erected in the verdant parklands of Kensington Gardens, inviting architecture aficionados and young children alike to frolic amongst its temporary environs all summer long.
Junya Ishigami is the 19th architect selected to design the Serpentine Pavilion, with his structure to be on display from 20 June to 6 October. Starkly differing from Frida Escobedo’s Aztec-inspired, open courtyard design last summer, Ishigami's pavilion will focus heavily on the concept of roofs, with slates forming a single canopy sliding out of the ground. It is certainly a fitting, if not essential, subject for rainy England, with many of Ishigami's renderings depicting the pavilion engulfed in a foggy miasma as rain pours down on its ash-grey covering.
Serpentine Pavilion 2019, Design Render, Exterior and Interior Views © Junya Ishigami + Associates
The Japanese architect is known for drawing inspiration from natural surroundings. The pavilion will show off his aptitude for seamlessly blending manmade design with natural topographies by creating a cave-like refuge which aims to offer a space for contemplation. Ishigami explains that 'my design for the pavilion plays with our perspectives of the built environment against the backdrop of a natural landscape, emphasising a natural and organic feel as though it had grown out of the lawn, resembling a hill made out of rocks’.
Ishigami founded his prize-winning architectural practice, Junya Ishigami + Associates, in 2004, and has since collected a host of prestigious accolades, including the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2010. He was the subject of a major exhibition at Paris’s Fondation Cartier in 2018 which invited visitors to step into his surreal imagination through a display of over 40 utopian designs. With many of his buildings and installations modelled after rocks and clouds, Ishigami's attraction to organic forms often produces ethereal-looking structures. His pavilion promises to possess a similar transient quality, as the architect has described it as 'appearing so light it could blow away in the breeze' – an apt aesthetic to reflect a fleeting English summer.
Junya Ishigami is the 19th architect selected to design the Serpentine Pavilion, with his structure to be on display from 20 June to 6 October. Starkly differing from Frida Escobedo’s Aztec-inspired, open courtyard design last summer, Ishigami's pavilion will focus heavily on the concept of roofs, with slates forming a single canopy sliding out of the ground. It is certainly a fitting, if not essential, subject for rainy England, with many of Ishigami's renderings depicting the pavilion engulfed in a foggy miasma as rain pours down on its ash-grey covering.
Serpentine Pavilion 2019, Design Render, Exterior and Interior Views © Junya Ishigami + Associates
The Japanese architect is known for drawing inspiration from natural surroundings. The pavilion will show off his aptitude for seamlessly blending manmade design with natural topographies by creating a cave-like refuge which aims to offer a space for contemplation. Ishigami explains that 'my design for the pavilion plays with our perspectives of the built environment against the backdrop of a natural landscape, emphasising a natural and organic feel as though it had grown out of the lawn, resembling a hill made out of rocks’.
Ishigami founded his prize-winning architectural practice, Junya Ishigami + Associates, in 2004, and has since collected a host of prestigious accolades, including the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2010. He was the subject of a major exhibition at Paris’s Fondation Cartier in 2018 which invited visitors to step into his surreal imagination through a display of over 40 utopian designs. With many of his buildings and installations modelled after rocks and clouds, Ishigami's attraction to organic forms often produces ethereal-looking structures. His pavilion promises to possess a similar transient quality, as the architect has described it as 'appearing so light it could blow away in the breeze' – an apt aesthetic to reflect a fleeting English summer.
