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The far-out pavilion ... Gehry at the Serpentine
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent25 Mar 2008
This summer's pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park will look like an exploded timber yard.
Architect Frank Gehry has devised a structure of large planks and multiple glass windows at different angles for what will be his British debut.
The designs, seen here for the first time, appear every bit as ambitious as his landmark buildings, such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the city where he's based.
Gehry, 79, described his pavilion as being "like an urban street" running from the park to the existing gallery.
"Inside the pavilion, glass canopies are hung from the wooden structure to protect the interior from wind and rain and provide for shade during sunny days," he said.
"The pavilion is much like an amphitheatre, designed to serve as a place for live events, music, performance, discussion and debate."
There will be terraced seating on both sides of the "street" and five raised seating "pods" around the edge. "The pods serve as visual markers enclosing the street and can be used as stages, private viewing platforms and dining areas," said Gehry.
Serpentine director Julia Peyton-Jones said: "Frank Gehry has designed an extraordinary pavilion that opens up unexpected vistas to the gallery and the park. It is a visionary scheme."
Gehry's pavilion will be ninth in the gallery's series of commissions. Every year a different architect, whose work has not been seen in Britain before, is charged with creating a temporary summer structure.
Rem Koolhaas, who is revamping the Commonwealth Institute, and Zaha Hadid, who has designed the 2012 Olympic aquatics centre, are among those to have made their British architectural debuts at the Serpentine.
Each pavilion is sited on the gallery's lawn for three months and erected within six months of the commission being accepted. Around 250,000 visitors every summer take part in the organised talks and events inside.
Gehry is renowned for his dramatic spectacle but while his buildings are complicated, he has a reputation for delivering them on time and on budget. He has been given many honours, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the gold medals of both the American and British architects' institutes.
