AECOM engineers deliver complex Pavilion at Serpentine Galleries

Junya Ishigami’s blend of nature and traditional architecture come together to create one of the most complex pavilions yet

Global infrastructure services firm AECOM, in collaboration with David Glover, has delivered Japenese architect Junya Ishigami’s Serpentine Pavilion.

Working closely with the architect, Serpentine Galleries and the project’s contractor Stage One, AECOM has transformed Ishigami’s vision into a reality by creating an organic shape with a ‘rock carpet’ roof that has been built by hand on-site by traditional stonemasons. A full range of engineering services were provided by AECOM to deliver one of the most technically complex Pavilions in recent years.

Ishigami took his inspiration from the stone roof, a dominant feature of Japanese architecture. His vision required a complex engineering design that was also structurally very challenging.

Ishigami created a free-form organically shaped expanse of Cumbrian slate, which is lifted from the ground on a ‘forest’ of slender steel columns. To achieve Ishigami’s vision of an ‘unstable’ structure holding up the heavy layers of metamorphic rock as though it was weightless, the size and profile of the structural steel frame was rationalised to the extent that it is nearly six times lighter than the 60 tonne slate it supports.

With this, Ishigami’s Pavilion articulates his ‘free space’ philosophy in which he seeks harmony between man-made structures and those that already exist in nature.

The complexity and detail in Ishigami’s design would typically take around five years to build. But with the project’s six-month design and construction programme and the evolving architectural form, AECOM used a range of digital tools to produce working solutions for Ishigami. Physical scale models were then built at the architect’s workshop in Japan to consider the implications and develop further iterations to the overall design. This process was supported throughout by the contractor, Stage One, using the expertise of a highly-skilled team of traditionally trained stonemasons to undertake physical testing of slate tile build-ups.

Michael Orr, Principal Engineer, AECOM, said: “For the seventh year running AECOM has collaboratively worked with its project partners to deliver The Serpentine Pavilion. Along with the demanding timescales, Ishigami’s ambitious vision for a carpet of rock that blends with the surrounding landscape and maintains a weightless look has been one of the most technically challenging but exciting Pavilions for us yet.”