A five-pointed star will land in London’s Kensington Gardens this summer, stretching its irregular pitch-roofed arms out towards the trees. One low-lying wing will house an atmospheric tea house, another a little library, while a third will rise to a jaunty peak above a riotous orange netting playground.
The 23rd annual Serpentine Gallery pavilion, due to open in June, is the work of South Korean architect Minsuk Cho, and his company Mass Studies. The first Korean architect to be selected for the prestigious commission, he plans to create a cluster of structures that draw on his country’s vernacular timber architecture, as well as the history of the Kensington site.
“We looked at all the pavilions that came before us,” says Cho, “and realised they have mostly been self-contained objects, placed on the centre of the lawn. We wanted to approach it differently, so we decided to create a void in the middle of the site, and draw attention to the periphery.”
