Serpentine Pavilion, Black Continues Being Beautiful

Ramiro Camelo's Photoreportage of a Swiss architect understated master piece at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens

The wait is over, the Serpentine pavilion 2011 has been unveiled. The pavilion is designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, who is well known for designs that joins harmony and landscaping within nature, such as the Therme Vals in Switzerland. In this occasion Zumthor, winner of Pritzker Prize in 2009, brings nature to London within his own trademark. He added: "The concept for this year’s pavilion is the 'hortus conclusus', a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The buildings acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light".

As a place that invites to contemplation, Zumthor hopes that within this sensual environment the visitors could become observers and might have a more contemplative experience of the architecture. Following Zumthor line of thinking, in the catalogue the German filmmaker Alexander Kluge pleads for creating more spaces for meditation in our cities: "civilisation and societies need ground that is uncultivated, gaps that are not subject to the principle of utility, something that is sufficient unto itself, which we do not consume: a sacrifice. Cities need space of piety."

Zumthor's creation is perhaps the most idyllic of all the pavilions so far, however it has been described by the press as 'austere black box', 'puzzling' and 'unsettling'. The pavilion building consists of a calm lightweight rectangular timber frame. The dark plywood walls are covered in a coarse black scrim more usually used to pack silage and seeds. Six doorways and Interior walls line the pavilion with several transition pathways, leading to the central garden. By a 'Zumthor effect', the very formal and heavy frame is brilliantly counter-plotted by the joyously enclosed garden, the heart of the pavilion, lined by sheltered benches. Crossing a doorway and walking through semi-dark corridors, then suddenly discovering the garden, I recalled a line: "All was dark yet splendid", from 'The man on the crowd' by Edgar Allan Poe. The internal garden (252 sqm) is richly planted with over 30 varieties of flowers, grasses and shrubs according to the instructions of the influential Dutch planting designer Piet Oudolf.

The architech Peter Zumthor

The pavilion commission is an annual series, established by Serpentine's gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones in 2000. The summer pavilion has become an international site for architectural experimentation and follows a decade of pavilions by some of the most recognized architects such as Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Oscar Niemeyer and Frank Gehry.

The pavilion opens to the public the 1st of July and will host 'Park nights' a series of public talks, performances and films screenings, through October 16. The series will conclude with the Garden Marathon curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Photos & words: Ramiro Camelo

See full programme of Park Nights: http://www.serpentinegallery.org/park_nights/

See our Serpentine pavilion video on Vimeo

Related Information: 'The secular retreat' by Peter Zumthor for Living Architecture

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Serpentine Pavilion, Black Continues Being Beautiful

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