Lecture date: 2016-11-14
The architects of the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion and Summer Houses in conversation with Julia Peyton-Jones, Kunlé Adeyemi, Frank Barkow, Asif Khan and Maria Solé Bravo.
As a project that was initiated in 2000 by Julia Peyton-Jones, this conversation will look back at the series of Serpentine Pavilions created over the last 16 years to discuss their importance within contemporary architectural culture. With only six months from commission to realisation, the pavilion is an annual project that is designed and built over an extremely short timeframe, which has created a new model for architectural projects worldwide. It was conceived as a new way to exhibit architecture as built experience, and over the years has presented pavilions designed by the world’s leading architects, who were yet to realise a building in England at the time of invitation. The commission provides these architects with a unique opportunity to test ideas, experiment with materials and forms, and create distinctive spaces for people to enjoy and use over the summer. This lecture will give us a unique insight into the decision-making and collaborative design process between curators, architects and engineers, using the 2016 pavilion by BIG and the addition of the four summer houses by Barkow Leibinger, Kunlé Adeyemi, Yona Friedman and Asif Khan as examples to illustrate the different constraints, successes and challenges of this type of project.
