Peter Zumthor, master of meditative, highly crafted buildings, has released images of his design for this year's Serpentine Gallery pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens. The pavilion, which opens in July and closes in September, will take the form of of a contemplative garden courtyard created by the Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.
"The concept", says Zumthor, "is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The building acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light. Through blackness and shadow one enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise ands traffic and smells of London - an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. This experience will be intense and memorable, as will the materials themselves - full of memory and time."
Zumthor's pavilion is the 11th in the series which began with Zaha Hadid in 2000 and has included giants such as Oscar Niemeyer, Alvaro Siza, Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry. Read more...
Image: A garden within a garden. Peter Zumthor's design for the Serpentine Gallery pavilion
Image: A garden within a garden. Peter Zumthor's design for the Serpentine Gallery pavilion
