SERPENTINE GALLERY PAVILION

SERPENTINE GALLERY PAVILION 2002 

Kensington Garders, London UK 2002

Architects: Toyo Ito

Each year, the Serpentine Gallery in London’s 

Kensington Park commission international

 architects to design a pavilion for the Gallery . 

Toyo Ito’s 2002 particle pation was the third in the series, following Zaha Hadid (2000) and Daniel Libeskind with Arup (2001). His single story structure was covered in aluminum panel’s glass. The 5.3 meter-high structure was formed by a steel grillage of flat bars. The concept was to create a columnless structure that was not dependent on an orthogonal grid system, making an open space to be used during the summer months as a safe and event space. The seemingly random structure was determined by an algorithm derived from the rotation of a single square . Each piece of the structure functioned not only as a beam, but also to absorb vibrations so that all elements combined from a complex , mutually interdependent whole. The point as explained by the architect, was (to render visible again the systems that make the most basic condition of architecture possible, but which were being obscured by a rationalism absessed with uniformity designed with the engineering firm Arup painted structural plywood and 3mm aluminum panels for the walls and ceiling and was left in place for three months.