Serpentine Gallery

The temporary pavilion constructed annually by the Serpentine Gallery, one of Europe’s leading venues for contemporary art, has become one of the highlights of the London architectural scene. Since 2000, pavilions by architects of the stature of Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Toyo Ito, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvaro Siza (working with Eduardo Souto de Moura) and Rem Koolhaas have been features of Kensington Gardens during the summer season. The 2007 pavilion was an architect/ artist collaboration between Kjetil Thorsen and Olafur Eliasson.

DP9 has been involved in the programme since its inception, working on a pro-bono basis as part of the partnership's commitment to supporting the arts. Despite the prospect of some distinctly contemporary interventions into the park, Westminster Council was encouraging from the start and there were no significant objections from other bodies. It was encouraging to find contemporary, even radical, design welcomed in London. Although the pavilions are modest in scale and cost, and designed to be dismantled at the end of the season, they represent a positive statement about the significance of high-quality design in the capital.