Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to design this year's Serpentine Pavilion

Bjarke Ingels follows the likes of Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry in creating the building that will sit on the lawn outside the Serpentine Gallery this summer
Space age: the new Google HQ by Bjarke Ingels
Robert Dex @RobDexES10 February 2016

The Danish architect who worked with Thomas Heatherwick on Google’s new California campus will design this year’s Serpentine Pavilion.

Bjarke Ingels follows the likes of Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry in creating the building that will sit on the lawn outside the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens for four months this summer.

The remit is to create a 300 square metre structure that is a cafe in the day and hosts events and lectures at night.

Bjarke Ingels Group, like the pro-ject’s previous architects, have never built a permanent structure in the UK, but its work can be seen in places as div-erse as China, Mexico and the Faroe Islands.

It and Garden Bridge designer Heatherwick have submitted plans for the new Google HQ in Mountain View, with an artificial sky made of four huge canopies and sweeping ramps so staff can cycle to desks.

Bjarke Ingels
Rex

The Serpentine design is expected to be unveiled this month, along with blueprints for four smaller summerhouses inspired by nearby Queen Caroline’s Temple, built in 1734. These will be designed by firms from Nigeria and Germany, plus 93-year-old Frenchman Yona Friedman and Londoner Asif Khan, 36, who worked on the Coca-Cola pavilion in Stratford’s Olympic Park.

Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-directors of the Serpentine Galleries, said: “After 15 years the pavilion programme has expanded. It now comprises five structures, each by an architect of international renown. We cannot wait to unveil them.” Projects by Copenhagen-born Ingels, 41, include the Big Lego House in Denmark, resembling giant interlocking toy bricks.

The far-out pavilion ... Gehry at the Serpentine

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Previous pavilions include Daniel Libeskind’s “origami” aluminium panels, and Rem Koolhaas’s translucent circular structure topped with a giant balloon. This year’s scheme is sponsored by Goldman Sachs.

Follow Robert Dex on Twitter: @RobDexES

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