BIG, the firm of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, has just unveiled its design for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, the summer-long installation hosted each year by the London gallery. For the 2016 edition, BIG has created a modular design that transforms from a straight line to a three-dimensional space, dependant on the viewer’s vantage point. Ingels’s team plans to create an immovable object that appears fluid yet rigid—a structure that, due to its fiberglass frames, will appear both transparent and opaque. The stacked frame will form a cavelike environment that will allow over 3,200 square feet of walkable space. A temporary area that will house a café during the day, while at night, will transform into a performance space for artists, writers and musicians.
Since 2000, the gallery has commissioned an acclaimed architect to design a temporary summer pavilion. This year, the main pavilion by BIG will be accompanied by four additional structures, designed by architects Asif Khan, Yona Friedman, Barkow Leibinger, and Kunlé Adeyemi. The gallery itself was established in 1970 as a public space for leading artists and architects to display their work. Over the years, such renowned artists and architects as Man Ray, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Frank Gehry have been featured at the gallery, which draws 1.2 million visitors yearly.