Zaha Hadid. Oscar Niemeyer. Rem Koolhaas. Frank Gehry. Peter Zumthor.
The list of architects commissioned to design the Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer pavilion down the years reads as a definitive who’s-who of the profession, and 2016 is no different, with man-of-the-moment Bjarke Ingels revealing a typically slick set of renderings for the preeminent installation. BIG’s Unzipped Wall will take center stage on the Gallery’s carefully manicured lawn from June 10th, but this year, the curators are branching out: four conceptual summer houses will complement the main pavilion and evoke the original 18th-century neoclassical summerhouse, also located in Kensington Gardens.
While they may not fall into the oft-disputed “Starchitect” category, the architects and designers chosen to produce these four garden follies are hugely influential figures nonetheless.
Kunlé Adeyemi’s summer house; © NLÉ
The first — Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi — is founder of NLÉ, an avant-garde practice that has made waves in recent years with radical solutions for urbanization in West Africa, including the remarkable Makoko Floating School in Lagos. Adeyemi’s sandstone summer house takes the inverse form of its neoclassical counterpart and is designed to be inhabited in any way people choose, from reclining to climbing.
Barkow Leibinger’s summerhouse; © Barkow Leibinger
Meanwhile, American-German architectural practice Barkow Leibinger has proposed a continuous ribbon of wood that slaloms back and forth to create a permeable canopy of rippling timber. The firm’s design was inspired by a second 18th-century building that once rotated to offer panoramic views of the Royal Park but is now demolished.
“With this absent structure in mind, we have designed a summer house in-the-round,” explain the architects. “Standing free with all its sides visible, and conceived as a series of undulating structural bands, it is reminiscent of a blind contour drawing (a drawing executed without lifting the pencil up from the paper while constantly looking at the subject).”
Asif Khan’s summer house; © Asif Khan
The third folly was conceived by London-based designer Asif Khan and possesses a form that is reminiscent of Bjarke Ingel’s main pavilion. A scale model illustrates how a series of closely spaced timber louvers will conceal a smaller structure with a polished metal base and roof, evoking a protective shield around a precious object.
Yona Friedman’s summer house; © Yon Friedman
Finally, legendary architect Yona Friedman — now 92 years of age — based the framework of his summerhouse on his seminal La Ville Spatiale project, a radical concept for urban housing that harnesses modular design and mobile architecture.“The Serpentine Summer House is a ‘space-chain’ structure that constitutes a fragment of a larger grid structure, originally conceived for La Ville Spatiale,” says Friedman. “It is a modular structure that can be disassembled and assembled in different formations and compositions.”
Together with BIG’s fiberglass centerpiece, these ethereal summer houses will provide visitors with a veritable mixed plate of architectural styles, material experiments and spatial experiences, adding even greater pulling power to this world-renowned temporary exhibit. Whether any of the four proposals outlined here are able to steal the proverbial spotlight away from Ingels’ design remains to be seen, but regardless, the public can anticipate a highly accessible, increasingly engaging architectural showcase in the coming months.