Mexican Architecture Studio LANZA to Design 2026 Serpentine Pavilion

The Mexican architecture studio LANZA has been selected to design this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, marking the 25th edition of the high-profile outdoor commission set on the institution’s grounds in London’s Kensington Gardens.

The atelier, which works across industrial design, residential projects, cultural spaces and public infrastructure projects, was founded in 2015 by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo. Their practice is rooted in the everyday and the informal, and proposes ways of building that foreground dialogue and collective experience. 

For this year’s pavilion, titled a serpentine, LANZA took inspiration from a type of brick wall originating in ancient Egypt which often goes by the same name. Composed of alternating curves, its shape provides stability through lateral support, meaning it requires fewer bricks than a straight wall.

LANZA atelier said: ‘We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to share our work with a wider public and to contribute to the Pavilion’s ongoing legacy of spatial experimentation and collective encounter.’ 

‘Set within a garden, an evocation of the natural world, the project takes the form of a serpentine wall, conceived as a device that both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation, and pause.’

Each year, the Serpentine selects a studio that has not previously constructed in the U.K. for the Pavilion commission. The temporary structure, which is often designed to engage visitors through play and community-building, is then open to the public for the summer.

Serpentine artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist said in a statement: ‘Over the last 10 years the Serpentine Pavilion has increasingly focused on giving opportunities to younger architectural practices.’

‘LANZA atelier’s architecture always involves a deep engagement with the local context, materials and lived experience. In their own words, they create contemporary spaces whose energy can last. Their spaces invite people to imagine a more connected, compassionate and creative future,’ Obrist said.

To mark the 25th edition of the Pavilion, throughout 2026, Serpentine will collaborate with the Zaha Hadid Foundation to commemorate the legacy of the late Iraqi-British architect, who produced the inaugural commission in 2000. A programme will bring together leading architects, thinkers, and cultural practitioners to explore questions at the forefront of architecture today.

Bettina Korek, Serpentine’s chief executive, said: ‘For 25 years, the Serpentine Pavilion has been a leading global platform for architectural experimentation.’

‘With LANZA atelier, we strengthen cultural exchange with Mexico and reaffirm the Pavilion as a free, civic space of connection.’ —[O]

Main image: Serpentine Pavilion 2026 a serpentine, designed by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, LANZA atelier. Design render, aerial view. © LANZA atelier. Courtesy Serpentine.