Smiljan Radic is the fourteenth architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion outside the entrance to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. At 48-years-old, he is one of the youngest and least-known architects to be selected for the programme. His design will follow Japanese Sou Fujimoto's cloud-like structure in 2013. "We have been intrigued by his work ever since our first encounter with him at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2011," said Serpentine Gallery directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Smiljan Radic said of his design:
“The Serpentine 2014 Pavilion is part of the history of small romantic constructions seen in parks or large gardens, the so-called follies, which were hugely popular from the end of the 16th Century to the start of the 19th. Externally, the visitor will see a fragile shell suspended on large quarry stones. This shell, white, translucent and made of fibreglass, will house an interior organised around an empty patio, from where the natural setting will appear lower, giving the sensation that the entire volume is floating. At night, thanks to the semi-transparency of the shell, the amber tinted light will attract the attention of passers-by like lamps attracting moths”
The pavilion will open 26 June and will remain in Kensington Gardens until 19 October.
Past Pavilions 2000 - 2013
Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, 2012
Peter Zumthor, 2011
Jean Nouvel, 2010
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, 2009
Frank Gehry, 2008
Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007
Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup, 2006
Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, Arup, 2005
MVRDV with Arup, 2004 (un-realised)
Oscar Niemeyer, 2003
Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond - with Arup, 2002
Daniel Libeskind with Arup, 2001
Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural Pavillion in 2000.















