Serpentine Pavilion – Conversations with Strangers

“I’ve only just got it” explained the man in front of me at the end of Marina Tabassum’s talk on the 2025 Serpentine Pavilion. He was referring not to the pavilion she’s designed but rather his new ‘phone/camera which I’d had my eye on as he snapped away during the event. The lens seemed to be of an extraordinary quality rendering every image which appeared on the screen immaculate, pristine and of a clarity my eyes couldn’t quite believe.

I futilely brushed the lens of a now virtually vintage iphone 11 on my jeans and attempted to take a few more photos of where I was at: ‘A Capsule in Time’ a pill-like shaped temporary pavilion next to the old Serpentine gallery marking 25 years of like minded architecture. Except… this one is different – it moves.

Jordan and I studied the pavilion from a distance. “I’ve worked here for seven of these, and this is my favourite so far.”

“Why?” I asked.

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P1070862 They informed me at the Press Office that I might be able to have a few words with Bjarke Ingels, architect of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion. I’d read about the unzipped wall and wondered how it would compare to past years’ structures.

I was also super keen to ask him about the unzipping part: In conceiving of these staggered cubes undulating from narrow to wide creating a different view from every angle, had he thought it male or female? Had he thought of no gender whatsoever? Are structures/buildings usually referred to as ‘she’ or is that just for sea vessels? I felt it could be an interesting conversation.

Walking through Hyde Park to get there, raindrops fell from tree branches, soft landings on my top, rippling outwards to create the occasional water mark.

Wandering in past the gallery, I moved slowly through the crush of people by the 2016 Pavilion. Wine gasses in hands, bottles of beer, interesting spectacle frames – coloured and otherwise surrounded me. ‘Isn’t it great to be out’ I overheard someone remark. Indeed it was, after a day of downpours the sun had finally granted us an audience, enabling outdoor pursuits once more and now setting on a city yearning for summer.

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