Pop Art ... when is a pavilion not a pavilion?In March, the RIBA RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects claimed to have curated 'the world's first inflatable folly', installed by the architectural practice FAT (see story below). Last month, London's Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London, which focuses on modern and contemporary art. Serpentine Gallery is one of London’s best-loved galleries for modern and contemporary art. announced the second--a design by Rem Koolhaas Remment Koolhaas (born November 17 1944 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. and Cecil Balmond for its summer architecture pavilion. This year's Serpentine Pavilion, the sixth in the series, is being designed by Rem Koolhaas, working alongside Cecil Balmond and Arup. Koolhaas has picked up the baton dropped by MVRDV MVRDV Maas Van Rijs de Vries (whose proposal to enclose the permanent gallery in a temporary 'mountain' was abandoned) to produce his first completed project in Britain. It is unlikely to be his last, since he is working on a masterplan in west London West London is the area of Greater London to the west of Central London. Although it is only ambiguously defined, it is one of the most economically active areas of London outside of the centre, containing significant amounts of office space along with Heathrow Airport and many of for a large redundant industrial site, and has also worked with the banker Rothschild to produce a new building in the City of London. Characteristically raising more questions than he necessarily chooses to answer, the Koolhaas pavilion is set to be a non-pavilion; a non-enclosure and a non-structure. Instead of celebrating substance, detail and expressive structural ingenuity, this year's pavilion as described by Koolhaas, will be 'defined by events and activities ... [in] a space that facilitates the inclusion of individuals in communal dialogue and shared experience'. Since 2000, the Serpentine pavilions have evolved in a variety of ways, exploiting a broad range of structures and materials (AR August 2005). This year, as Balmond notes, the design is concerned with 'the very definition of pavilion', focusing on a large inflatable ovoid o·void or o·voi·dal n. Something that is shaped like an egg. adj. Shaped like an egg; oviform. ovoid having the oval shape of an egg. ovoid body colloid body. that will rise and fall depending on the nature of events and activities. By engaging or disengaging dis·en·gage v. dis·en·gaged, dis·en·gag·ing, dis·en·gag·es v.tr. 1. To release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles. See Synonyms at extricate. 2. with a series of landed walls, the amphitheatre--the space for communal dialogue and shared experience--will be able to respond to unpredictable British summer weather, which ceremonially took Siza and de Moura's pavilion by storm last year as the rain poured in on opening night. This year, instead of buckets, will it be guy ropes pulled in? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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