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Wolfgang Buttress's UK pavilion for the World Expo 2015 in Milan, relocated to Kew Gardens in June 2016
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
This is one of 6 images in the set. This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
Today part of the Hinkle House is the Andrews Funeral Home www.andrewsfuneralservices.com/fh/home/home.cfm?fh_id=14468 just south of Gloucester Court House in Gloucester County, Virginia. It was built around 1910 of structural terracotta (also spelled terra cotta) blocks and stucco covering. This information came from a phone conversation with the home owner. In the last quarter of the 19th century, stucco and hollow terracotta bricks had become more common as building materials but never reached tremendous popularity in home construction. Terracotta is clay based and is notable for widespread use as roof tiles and in sculpture (when glazed) as well. Homes of this construction were advertised as having fire resistant properties. Use of terracotta and stucco helped create homes with quiet interiors, sound effectively diminished by the structural properties. The hollow tiles were used as foundation and walls, the latter often covered by plaster generally on exterior walls. Structural terracotta has gone by many names—hollow tile, building tile, structural clay tile, terracotta blocks, terracotta bricks, etc.
The spacious 2 1/2 storied home has steep-pitched red-shingled roofs and prominent gables. Visible on the front façade is a gabled dormer with two windows. This pattern of paired windows is prominent as well on the front façade. The fenestration is mostly 9/1 sash. The ground level has an addition to the left, a slight bay construction and an entry porch. The porch is small and covered with a sloping roof, a small gable and underneath that a partial arch, which matches the arched transom of the door; four slender Tuscan columns support the roof. The entrance is single-leaf with 10 glass panes; the sidelights consist of 5 panes each. It seems the transom consists of irregularly shaped panes, possibly of a sun-burst pattern. The photos were taken around 7:30 on an early May morning in 2011; the light was not the best at that time.
For additional information on terra cotta see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_clay_tile
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_cotta
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
the central market in ho chi min city is a crazy quilt of vendors by day. only to be reborn, as another set of vendors takes to the streets with clothing, shoes, kitchens and pop-up restaurants promptly at 7pm – in an afterdark rodeo of commerce.
during the day, this clerestory is the source of light for all of the vendors whose wares range from fresh herbs, shellfish, spices, unrefrigerated pork, bullfrogs… to say, counterfeit watches and coffee which has passed through the GI tract of a weasel. crazy, but fun.
at times pungent, mouthwatering, and mindcrushing.
the texture in this image occurs naturally. It is not an effect of photoshop or lightroom. concrete may be the building material of choice. It is cheap, available and relatively plastic to work with. but it is also safe harbor for all of the humidity and bacteria which are everpresent in a building that meets so many demands.
Poids en ordre de marche CE : 20 600 kg
Largeur de fraisage : 1 500 mm
Profondeur de fraisage max. : 320 mm
Travaux sur le réseau d'eau potable rue de Saurupt à Nancy.
Pays : France 🇫🇷
Région : Grand Est (Lorraine)
Département : Meurthe-et-Moselle (54)
Ville : Nancy (54000)
Quartier : Nancy Sud
Adresse : rue de Saurupt
Durée des travaux : février 2025 → mai 2025
From Information provided by Kew Gardens:
"Opened on International Biodiversity Day 2008, the Treetop Walkway stands in the Arboretum, between the Temperate House and the lake. It was designed by Marks Barfield Architects, who also designed the London Eye. The 18-metre high, 200-metre walkway enables visitors to walk around the crowns of lime, sweet chestnut and oak trees. Supported by rusted steel columns that blend in with the natural environment, it provides opportunities for inspecting birds, insects, lichen and fungi at close quarters, as well as seeing blossom emerging and seed pods bursting open in spring. The walkway’s structure is based on a Fibonacci numerical sequence, which is often present in nature’s growth patterns."
Constructing the new boulevard by Spanish landscape architect Manuel De Sola-Morales, Scheveningen, the Netherlands.
Leaf Motif Created Using ALPOLIC Aluminum Composite Panels For Pickering Town Centre Fabricated by Cladco Corp
Panel Manufacturer: ALPOLIC
Architect: Petroff Partnership Architects
Location: Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Completion: November 2009
images courtesy of © Cladco Corp
Poids en ordre de marche CE : 28 800 kg
Largeur de fraisage : 2 000 mm
Profondeur de fraisage max. : 330 mm
Travaux de collecte et transfert des eaux de source du Reclus, Nabécor et du jardin botanique.
Logs near a local road, Napo Province, Ecuador.
Photo by Tomas Munita/CIFOR
If you use one of our photos, please credit it accordingly and let us know. You can reach us through our Flickr account or at: cifor-mediainfo@cgiar.org and m.edliadi@cgiar.org
In the very highest quality flint walling, the flints were not only knapped but trimmed into small blocks, requiring almost no mortar ...a lovely feat of craftsmanship. The slightly inferior area, top right, looks like a repair. Norwich Guildhall again.
Copyright © 2013 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
Design idea No. 3
Art Deco Sunflowers
The idea comes from motifs I have seen on antique door hardware on old houses. These pieces try to catch the feel of gardening and Buffalo's urban neighborhoods. The use of the floral motifs and the rectangular shape relate it back to the old Victorian, Art Deco and Art Nouveau hardware that is so common in even the most humble homes in Buffalo. Although this particular piece directly portrays an urban neighborhood I have tried incorporate the spirit of these wonderful designs and imagery into art rather than copy.
At the end of the 1800s considerable amounts of talent were employed to research ancient art and use it to adorn Victorian era hardware. I am always amazed by this since these items are so often overlooked by most people. The lock companies such as Corbin and Yale engaged in an arms race of sort to make their hardware more ornate and interesting and employed artists and historians to advise and design this wonderful hardware. They based the designs on ancient Egyptian, Roman, Arabic, Asian and other societies' art. The research is echoed in names like "Third Empire" hardware. Eventually these companies notices that contractors bought what was cheap rather than what was beautiful (couldn't be truer today) and so these lines of hardware were discontinues. Unfortunately I have not found any references citing who these people or the carvers and pattern makers that created this art. I believe they are artists but are unfortunately lost to time.
You can see examples of hardware motifs here. www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157625027747314...
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
Poids en ordre de marche : 17 100 - 19 950 kg
Chantier de réhabilitation des bâtiments 001 et 003 de la Cité administrative – Caserne Thiry et aménagement de la place d'Armes.
Pays : France 🇫🇷
Région : Grand Est (Lorraine)
Département : Meurthe-et-Moselle (54)
Ville : Nancy (54000)
Quartier : Nancy Centre
Adresse : 47, rue Sainte-Catherine,
Fonction : Administration
Construction : 2022 → 2024
► Architectes : Architectures Studio
PC n° 54 395 22 N0016 délivré le 20/06/2022
Niveaux : R+3
Hauteur maximale : 26,95 m
Surface de plancher totale : 17 301 m²
Superficie du terrain : 46 014 m²
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
An interesting pair of houses at 59 & 61 Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, just around the corner from Queen Square. No. 59, on the left, was built 1709-11 and the front, if original, would have been very advanced for this date ...especially in the provinces. It is more likely that the building was re-faced when Jacob Elton renewed his lease in 1736 ...by which time the front had become rather old-fashioned. Mr Michael Jenner, in "Bristol, an Architectural History" calls it "...one of the most interesting Baroque terrace house-fronts in England". The eared window architraves are different on each floor. The sills rest on little pilasters, so tiny they almost look like triglyphs. On the second floor the keystones sprout what have been called "winged tablets". At either side of the façade are pilasters, different on each floor ...rusticated at the ground floor, panelled on the first and fluted on the second. The attic storey looks modern to me, but the books refer to it as merely "altered". The porch is definitely a later addition. Professor Gomme concedes that much of the work is crude, especially some of the incised lines. To me it seems naïve and provincial ...but very exuberant and enjoyable.
Next door, no. 61 must have been put up within a very few years of the introduction of brick-fronted houses in Bristol. The very first is thought to have been the house on Redcliffe Hill which was later modified to become the world's first shot tower. Its deeds date from 1698, although the house was probably built a year or two later. This one was probably not far behind, and the inexperience of local builders in the new techniques is evident. They certainly hadn't learned how to handle the window heads.
This area is built on a drained alluvial marsh and the bricks must have been made from clays excavated virtually on site. The house is formed from the ground upon which it stands. All the bricks used in Bristol before the middle of the 19th century were fashioned from silts deposited by the Rivers Avon and Frome. Those we see here vary slightly in colour; each is an individual with a unique surface. Their slight hand-made irregularity gives the frontage a pleasingly lively texture. It is instructive to compare this effect with that produced by the relentless mechanical precision of modern bricks.
Lighting: Twin speed lights in a gridded, 47 inch umbreall octabox at about 9 o'clock as main. A single speed light in an Apollo 28x28 soft box, at about 3 o'clock provides fill.. A single snooted speed light along the wall at about 1 o'clock provides the diagonal background highlight.
Thought you'd like to see a detail of how the the building materials from the previous photo were utilized. As Carlos Aviles pointed out, early form of recycling.
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
On Mt. Olive Road, about 12 miles north of Birmingham, Ala., Willard Shaw stood eyeing his pocket watch and counting the passing cars. Every minute, about six cars would roll down the road. Good enough, Willard thought. With that kind of traffic, he believed it would be a good place to open a building supply store, and the grand opening was November 16, 1974. Since then, Shaw Building Supply has become a multi-million dollar, multi-generational family business.
Willard Shaw passed away in 1991, yet his family business legacy continues. Just about every member of the Shaw family is involved in the business, including Willard’s wife, Evelyn, son Herbert (who recently retired), son Jerry and his wife Cathey McCluskey Shaw, daughter Tracy Shaw, and daughter Nelda Butler and her husband Jim Butler.
The next generation of the Shaw family has also started working at the company and it includes Jerry and Cathey’s daughter Catherine Price and her husband Robert Price, and Nelda and Jim’s daughter, Caroline Cummings.
And just as the family grew, so did the company. For decades, the company enjoyed steadily increasing revenues, topping $12 million in 2006. Then came the economic downturn. Like so many other retailers across the country, Shaw Building Supply was hit hard—perhaps even a bit harder because the bulk of their business relied on housing starts, which dropped to near zero in just a few months.
“Housing is a big part of our business and when the housing starts dropped off, our trucks weren’t moving,” Cathey says. “It was the first time we had to lay off anyone, ever.”
In response to the economic downturn, the store shut down a lumberyard and reduced inventory. The store also cut the number of employees. At its height, the store had 40 employees and now employs about 25. The business now needed to rely more on hardware.
When the business first opened in 1974, it offered contracting services and lumber with a minimal hardware selection. After about seven years, the store introduced its first full line, and now hardware accounts for about 40 percent of the business.
When the company’s main hardware supplier, Moore-Handley, was acquired by House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware in 2009, it led the Shaws to explore their options. To make the climate a little tougher, it was about this time that Lowe’s opened a store about eight miles south.
“When Lowe’s first opened, a lot of our walk-in business disappeared,” says Jerry, who adds that the family quickly realized that their new distributor would need expertise on competing with the big boxes.
After evaluating several wholesaler suppliers, the Shaw family decided the House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware program fit their needs the best. Adds Jerry, “And when we looked at the final line, House-Hasson had better prices.”
House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware believed the store could benefit from a resetting, a rejuvenated advertising campaign and an evaluation of in-store pricing. “It took a while for us to decide how to proceed with House-Hasson and they were very patient and came up with solutions that worked for us,” Jerry says.
During the course of three months this past summer, House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware helped the Shaws redesign the store, beef up the assortment, add new merchandise and adjust pricing.
“House-Hasson really helped us with our displays and restocking,” Cathey says “We just had a bare minimum. Because we didn’t have that much on our shelves, word got out that we were going out of business. That obviously wasn’t the case, but it’s about perception. We weren’t providing the right perception.”
The Shaws appreciated how House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware was able to tailor the remerchandising to the needs of the business. “House-Hasson worked with us and used shelves we had,” Cathey says. “We couldn’t have done the reset if they didn’t work with us. They really bent over backward to help.”
Along with redesigning some endcaps, one of biggest changes in the store was creating a display wall of power tools. Previously, the tools were on shelves in the middle of aisles. “Before the reset, some customers didn’t even know we sold power tools,” admits Robert, who points out that power tool sales have tripled in the past few months.
But one of the biggest benefits to the store’s bottom line was examining the pricing structure within the store, especially compared to the new big-box competition.
“We didn’t know what items were price sensitive or impulse buys,” Jerry says. “House-Hasson helped us with perception. Lots of folks think the big-box stores are cheapest, but House-Hasson helped us show people that they’re not.”
In addition to making suggestions on what products to add to the store’s inventory such as heaters, garden accessories and herbicides, House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware helped the Shaws identify which items are price sensitive in their area. “It turns out we were high on price-sensitive items and on other, higher-margin items we were way low,” Robert says.
Insulating spray foam and ladders were a couple examples of price-sensitive items the store had priced too high. On the other end, items such as nuts, bolts and screws could be priced higher for a better return.
According to Casey Williams, the House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware territory manager for northeast Alabama, one of the goals is to continually introduce new products and help tweak displays.
“Anything where we’re changing an endcap and the look of the store will get the customer’s attention,” Williams says. “Having new items in the store means you’re keeping up with the competition. It’s important for customers to know about new products and that stores keep adding new items that will sell in their market. That will continue to increase customer traffic because they know they are a one-stop shop.”
Once prices were set right and the store was stocked with a larger assortment, it was time to give the store’s marketing a little freshening. Previously, the store would place quarter-page ads in the local paper, and often wouldn’t receive much response.
Shaw Building Supply has started using House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware’s circular program, which has already helped drive foot traffic. In addition to the circular, Williams and the House-Hasson Wholesale Hardware team helped Shaw plan a customer appreciation day for November.
In 2009, sales were $4.5 million and the following year revenue increased to about $6 million. Walk-in traffic continues to pick up, and three or four employees have to be at the front counter at all times to handle the steady foot traffic.
“They’re a great store with friendly people and hometown atmosphere,” Williams says. “The customer service they provide is through the roof.”
House-Hasson’s next dealer market is scheduled for January 5-7 at the Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Tenn.
Architectural detail of an old church door in Avila, Spain with beautiful beige stone detail, arches and columns.
Built by Matt Vaughn, Revision Division, The RE Store, Spring 2019
This apothecary cabinet was a labor of love. Crafted from reclaimed wood, with a base of bent rebar, this beauty will surely delight anyone that chooses to take a peak inside. The drawer pulls were made from cross sections of pool cubes, mixed and matched to show off the wooden inlay.
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
Building materials are seen in the Sino-Singapore Eco City near Tianjin. Integrated waste management will be implemented in the Eco-city, with particular emphasis on the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste. A light-rail transit system, supplemented by a secondary network of trams and buses, will be the main mode of transportation in the Eco-city. This will help to reduce its carbon emissions.
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “
Artist: Ai Weiwei at The Royal Academy of Arts London 2015
In 2008 the municipal authorities in Shanghai invited Weiwei to build a studio in
Malu Town, Jiading district, at their cost. The federal authorities then overturned the agreement and ordered the building to be demolished.
Despite the authorities’ attempts to prevent Weiwei from accessing the site during the demolition he managed to obtain some of the original
building materials to make ‘Souvenir from
Shanghai’.
Text Copyright www.serpentinegalleries.org 2018
“Serpentine Pavilion 2018 designed by Frida Escobedo
Summary:
Architect Frida Escobedo, celebrated for dynamic projects that reactivate urban space, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2018. Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Detail:
Escobedo (b. 1979, Mexico City) is the 18th and youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery lawn in Kensington Gardens. This pioneering commission, which began in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK buildings of some of the biggest names in international architecture. In recent years, it has grown into a hotly anticipated showcase for emerging talent, from Sou Fujimoto of Japan to selgascano of Spain and Bjarke Ingels of Denmark. Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel selected this year’s architect, with advisors David Adjaye and Richard Rogers.
Escobedo’s Pavilion takes the form of an enclosed courtyard, comprised of two rectangular volumes positioned at an angle. While the outer walls are aligned with the Serpentine Gallery’s eastern façade, the axis of the internal courtyard aligns directly to the north. Internal courtyards are a common feature of Mexican domestic architecture, while the Pavilion’s pivoted axis refers to the Prime Meridian, which was established in 1851 at Greenwich and became the global standard marker of time and geographical distance.
British-made materials have been used in the Pavilion’s construction, chosen for their dark colours and textured surfaces. A celosia – a traditional breeze wall also common to Mexican architecture – is here composed of a lattice of cement roof tiles that diffuse the view out into the park, transforming it into a vibrant blur of greens and blues from within. Two reflecting elements emphasise the movement of light and shadow inside the Pavilion over the course of the day. The curved underside of the canopy is clad with mirrored panels, and a triangular pool cast into the Pavilion floor traces its boundary directly beneath the edge of the roof, along the north axis of the Meridian. As the sun moves across the sky, reflected and refracted by these features, visitors may feel a heightened awareness of time spent in play, improvisation and contemplation over the summer months.
Escobedo’s prize-winning work in urban reactivation ranges from housing and community centres to hotels and galleries. In 2006, she founded her practice in Mexico City, with significant national projects including the Librería del Fondo Octavio Paz and an extension of La Tallera Siqueiros gallery in Cuernavaca. Her designs have featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012 and 2014), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), and in San Francisco, London and New York. Recent projects include Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and social housing projects in Guerrero and Saltillo, Mexico. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has won multiple awards and accolades.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2018 will once again be a platform for Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual programme of experimental and interdisciplinary evenings on selected Fridays. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, theory and dance will be commissioned to create new, site-specific works in response to Escobedo’s design, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance, sponsored by COS. Building on its 2017 success, Radical Kitchen also returns to the Pavilion on selected Thursday lunchtimes, inviting community groups, artists, activists, writers and architects to form connections through food. This programme of workshops, performances and talks will address geological time, empire and movements, inspired by the ideas behind Escobedo’s Pavilion design. The Architecture Family Pack and Programme, sponsored by COS, will give children and their families the chance to explore the Serpentine Pavilion from playful and original perspectives.
"I think one needs to plan for change. Make everything more flexible in every way, so that the building become more like a palm tree and less like a completely rigid structure, because that’s the one that will fall down. Rigid things collapse. The rest can move, yes, it transforms, it may lose sections, but its spirit will remain." Frida Escobedo in an interview with The Fabulist. On the occasion of the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, the Serpentine has partnered with Aesop to co-present a special issue of The Fabulist that explores the themes of the Serpentine’s summer season and celebrates Aesop’s support of Live Programmes at the Serpentine.
Serpentine Pavilion Architect's Statement
The design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 is a meeting of material and historical inspirations inseparable from the city of London itself and an idea which has been central to our practice from the beginning: the expression of time in architecture through inventive use of everyday materials and simple forms. For the Serpentine Pavilion, we have added the materials of light and shadow, reflection and refraction, turning the building into a timepiece that charts the passage of the day. “