Serpentine Pavilion 2024, Archipelagic Void, designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies © Mass Studies Photo: Iwan Baan Courtesy: Serpentine
LONDON (June 5, 2024) — AECOM, the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, has delivered this year’s Serpentine Pavilion project, marking a historic twelfth year as technical advisor to the annual pop-up project in Kensington Gardens.
The 23rd Serpentine Pavilion has been designed by internationally renowned Korean architect Minsuk Cho and his firm Mass Studies, with AECOM providing multidisciplinary engineering, project management and specialist technical services. Working closely with Mass Studies, Serpentine and the project’s contractor Stage One, AECOM has realised the vision of Archipelagic Void, which has been designed as a series of adaptable structures at the periphery of a central circular space – drawing attention to the lawn area where past iterations of the Pavilion sat.
Opening to the public on 7 June 2024, the Pavilion is comprised of five ‘island’ structures, unique in size and diverse in purpose including a café, library, gallery, auditorium and children’s play area. The structures are built predominantly using natural sawn timber, with a combination of modern and traditional joinery techniques, allowing for easy assembly and disassembly, and supported by removeable foundations that adjust to the slope of the land.
The individual roofs are a combination of timber boards and lightweight prestressed PVC fabrics, bringing colour and light to the interior, and supported by a slender steel ring that creates a circular opening in the middle. Each island structure acts as a point on the lawn to link the Serpentine South Gallery and the garden’s footpaths.
The Serpentine Pavilion incorporates an underlying focus on carbon reduction, reusability and sustainable supply chain sourcing. After its life in Kensington Gardens, each of the pavilion’s islands can be deconstructed and rebuilt in a separate location.
Jon Leach, Director at AECOM, said: “Our engineers, multi-disciplinary specialists and project managers have been a part of the Serpentine Pavilion project for over a decade, and each year it offers a chance to embrace innovation and creativity. This year has been no different. This year’s design has been influenced by Cho’s own experience with the architectural and cultural references of South Korea, but also embraces the history of the Serpentine Pavilion in a way we’ve not seen before in our tenure as technical advisor and project manager.
“Timber has been our main building material for the project for a number of years, but this is the first time we’ve embraced non-engineered timber at this scale to bring to life the architect’s vision. It has also significantly helped reduce embodied carbon associated with the build and means that the temporary structure can be re-used in a new location and maintain its legacy.”
