2024 Serpentine Pavilion Announced
South-Korean firm Mass Studies to design the 23rd Serpentine Pavilion
Serpentine Pavilion 2024 designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies. Design render, exterior view. Courtesy Serpentine. Photo: © Mass Studies.
Seoul-based architect Minsuk Cho and his firm Mass Studies have been tapped to design the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion in Kensington Gardens.
The latest Pavilion, titled Archipelagic Void, will be unveiled at Serpentine South on 5 June. It will consist of five 'islands' with an open space in the middle, a void inspired by madang or the small courtyard found in old Korean houses. Each island will serve a different function, including Gallery as the welcoming area and Tea House as an homage to the site's history as a tea pavilion.
'We began by asking what can be uncovered and added to the Serpentine site, which has already explored over 20 iterations at the centre of the lawn,' said Cho, who founded Mass Studies in 2003. 'By inverting the centre as a void, we shift our architectural focus away from the built centre of the past, facilitating new possibilities and narratives.'
From 7 June to 27 October, Archipelagic Void will host Serpentine's live event programme. This year it features Park Nights, a platform for live music, poetry, spoken words, and dance, and the 2024 Infinite Ecologies Marathon, among others.
In 2000, Zaha Hadid was the first architect to be commissioned to design the Pavilion, with the inaugural design taking on a tent-like shape. Since then the annual commission has been awarded to some of the biggest names in international architecture and emerging talents. The Pavilion's designers have included Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh (2023), American artist Theaster Gates (2022), and South African architect Sumayya Vally (2021).
