Serpentine Gallery Pavilion re-design plans revealed — a touch of Mexican flair in Kensington Gardens

A mock-up render of the Serpentine Pavilion.

(Image credit: Lanza Atelier)

The area around the Serptentine Gallery in London is getting a new look for the summer, and you can now get a look at what’s coming.

Lanza Atelier, a design studio from Mexico City, has been announced as the partner for a new installation outside the Septentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens.

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Serpentine Pavilion, Lanza Atelier will give the space a suitably snake-themed overhaul. Dubbed A Serpentine, the design sees wobbly curved outer brick walls half-encasing the pavilion area.

A render of the Serpentine Pavilion installation.

The use of brick is apparently a reference to a classic English garden wall. But it’s likely to look quite unlike any we’ve seen among London’s suburbs when it’s erected. You might have some planning permission woes if you setup a brick installation like this in your back garden.

Apparently the official term for such a weaving wall is a “crinkle-crankle” design, which has its origins in Egypt.

“Set within a garden, an evocation of the natural world, the project takes the form of a serpentine wall, conceived as a device that both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing resholds of proximity, orientation, and pause,” says Lanza Atelier.

The structure has a transparent roof that, by the looks of it, won’t remotely save you from a rain shower. But it will let the light shine through into the brick structure’s innards.

This latest Serpentine Pavilion installation will be in situ from June 6th until October 25th, during which you’ll be able to catch the David Hockney: A Year in Normandie And Some Other Thoughts About Painting and Cecily Brown: Picture Making exhibitions at the Serpentine North and South galleries.

The original Serpentine Gallery Pavilion design opened way back in June 2000, and was created by Zaha Hadid. It was a great big tent-like structure, under which sat a bunch of stark-looking benches.

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Andrew Williams has written about all sorts of stuff for more than a decade — from tech and fitness to entertainment and fashion. He has written for a stack of magazines and websites including Wired, TrustedReviews, TechRadar and Stuff, enjoys going to gigs and painting in his spare time. He's also suspiciously good at poker.

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