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Kéré Architecture

Serpentine Pavilion 2017

Foto: Iwan Baan
Foto: Iwan Baan
Jahr der Fertigstellung
2017
DESIGNED BY FRANCIS KERE
Supported by Goldman Sachs
23 June - 8 October 2017

Diebedo Francis Kere, the award-winning architect from Gando, Burkina Faso, has designed the Serpentine  Pavilion 2017, responding to the brief with a
bald, innovative  structure that  brings his characteristic sense of light and life to the lawns of Kensington  Gardens.

Kere, who Ieads the Berlin-based  practice  Kere Architecture, is the 17th architect to accept  the Serpentine's invitation to design a temporary Pavilion in its grounds. This annual commission invites an international architect to build his or her first  structure in England (at the time of invitation). Since its launch in 2000, it has become one of the most anticipated events in the global cultural  calendar and a leading visitor attraction during  London's summer season of culture. Serpentine Artistic  Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected the architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.

lnspired  by the tree that  serves as a central  meeting  point for life in Gando, Francis Kere has designed  a Pavilion that  seeks to connect  its visitors to nature- and to each other. An expansive roof, supported by a central  steel framework, mimics a tree's canopy, allowing air to circulate  freely while affering shelter  against London rain and summer heat. Kere has embraced the British climate in his design, creating  a structure that  engages with the ever-changing London weather in creative  ways.

The Pavilion has four separate entry points  with an open-air  courtyard in the centre, where visitors  can sit andrelax during  sunny days. ln the case of rain, an oculus funnels  water that  collects on the roof into a spectacular  waterfall effect, before it is evacuated through a drainage system in the floor for later use in irrigating the nearby parkland. Both the roof and walls are made from wood. By day, they act as shading, creating  pools of dappled shadows. By night, the walls become a source of illuminationassmall perforations twinkle with the movement  and activity from inside.

Kere is committed to socially engaged and ecological  design in his practice, as evidenced by his award-winning primary  school in Burkina Faso, his pioneering  solo museum shows in Munich and Philadelphia, and his immersive
installation in the 2014 exhibition Sensing Spaces at London's Royal Academy.

lnspired  by Kere's stories of gathering, debate  and community, the Serpentine Pavilion 2017 will hast a new series of weekly community pienie talks, Radical Kitchen. On eight  Wednesdays in July and August, a different London group
or campaign  organisationwill assemble in the Pavilion to share their recipes for creating  meaningful social change. Forging a connection with food, these pienies will be co-hosted  and catered by Mazf Mas, a pop-up  restaurant and award-winning social enterprise run by migrant  women, which seeks to unearth  the flavours of modern London for everyone.