Combining Art and Architecture – Public space with a difference

Serpentine Gallery 2009 Pavilion of Kaziyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA Architects was one of the picks of this year’s London design events.

By Maria Beremski

On Monday the 19th of October the ninth incarnation of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion - unique worldwide commission conceived in 2000 by the Director Julia Peyton-Jones started to come down to be reassembled on the private grounds of the proud new owner. For hundred days it stood on Hyde Park lawn for the use and the pleasure of joggers, cyclists, art goers, design fans and odd passers-by looking for coffee or lunch.

Definitely it was one of the picks of this year’s London Design and Art autumn’s season started on 15/09 with Design week and 100% Design and finished on 18/10 with the now established Frieze Art fair. Even in those cheerless recession times once again London gathered for one month the most influential people in the industry and the most excitingly creative young crowd.

The Pavilions commission is an ongoing programme of temporary structures by internationally acclaimed architects and designers who, at the time of the Serpentine Gallery's invitation, has not completed a building in England. The time limitation (max 6 months from invitation to completion and 3 months exhibition life) provide a new 21 century innovative and dynamic model of commissioning architecture. It also offers a case study on interaction between nature, structure and viewer who is encouraged to appreciate the architecture by experiencing it in the most unique natural setting.
The brief is always the same: to design a covered space that can be used as a café by day and a forum for learning, debate and entertainment at night. Architects don’t have to worry about services and utilities.They are encouraged to carry out their own interpretation of a summer pavilion with a more experimental structure where none of them has ever built beforе. The plot is situated next to the building and on the lawn of one of the finest London Galleries for modern and contemporary art.
The budget is not fixed and is paid for solely by sponsorship and the sale of the finished structure, which does not cover more than 40% of its cost. By now it is extremely popular and astonishingly successful commission voted last year by Art Newspaper as No 4 best attended design exhibitions globally. It started with Zaha Hadid, 2000, Daniel Libeskind , 2001, Toyo Ito w, 2002, Oscar Niemeyer, 2003, MVRDV, 2004 (unrealised), Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, 2005, Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, 2006, Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007 and Frank Gehry 2008.
This year’s selection went to the much acclaimed duo Kaziyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. with some landmarks on their portfolio: Louvre Museum in Lens, France, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, USA, N-Museum in Wakayama; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa..
According to the Co-Director of the Gallery Hans Ulrich Obrist”Each year provides different approaches in how to deal with the complexities of the park. Obviously they (Kazio and Ryue) are aware of what has come before, but they have their own singularity. This year came up with a seamless movement.”
Describing their design, the architects say: ‘The reflective canopy undulates across the site, expanding the park and sky. Its appearance changes according to the weather, allowing it to melt into the surroundings. It works as a field of activity with no walls, allowing uninterrupted views across the park and encouraging access from all sides.
In contrast to previous pavilions, such as Rem Koolhaas’ inflatable dome in 2006 or Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen’s pointed structure in 2007, this year’s pavilion was barely enclosed. Sejima and Nishizawa’s design comprised an undulating aluminium sheet, which looks like a ‘floating pool of water’ suspended on top of 99 stainless steel columns. The foundation’s slab follows freely the outline of the roof structure, wrapping around trees, leading in and out of open and semi enclose spaces – maze with transparent barriers. The cloud-like roof has seamless finish but it is made of 3x2m skins of composite of mirror polish aluminium over 8 interlocked sections of plywood. It is a unique sandwich panel technique developed specially for this project from Arup – engineers for all 9 pavilions. The incredible lightness and fluidity of the stunning structure makes it minimal yet poetic in very urban kind of way.
And indeed, in all times the futuristic shelter attracted people to stop by for drink, with a book or simply to enjoy the sheer playfulness of the reflections and the tempting Alice in Wonderland sudden and inexplicable change of height. The sculptural and peaceful form is gently haunting. Haunting, that is, not in the sense of disturbing, but in a way that will very probably remain in visitors' memories long after it's be disassembled, sold and re-erected somewhere else. Aesthetically simple and technicaly complex object for contemplation this is a design with a practical purpose as well.
Art or architecture? Or both?