Since launching back in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, the Serpentine Gallery’s annual pavilion series has featured work by some of the most noted architects in the industry — from Oscar Niemeyer to SANAA. Today it was announced that controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will be reteaming with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron (his collaborators on the iconic “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing, pictured here) to create this year’s temporary structure. What can we expect to see in Hyde Park? Their vision calls for “a bowl-shaped auditorium carved into the earth and protected by a flat, circular steel roof raised five feet above ground level.” Supporting that roof will be “columns that thematically echo the designs of the previous eleven pavilions,” as well as a “wild card” column reflecting their own contribution.
“As we dig down into the earth we encounter a diversity of constructed realities such as telephone cables and former foundations,” the trio said in a cryptic statement. “Like a team of archaeologists, we identify these physical fragments as remains of the eleven Pavilions built between 2000 and 2011.” Look for the finished product to open to the public in June, when the Serpentine Gallery will host a major exhibition of Yoko Ono’s work. [via ArtsBeat]
We love the Pritzker Prize-winning architectural team of SANAA because they gave us the New Museum, a whimsical steel stack of a building that sits at the intersection of Bowery and Prince Street in New York’s Lower East Side shouting out a rainbow colored “HELL, YES” to everyone who walks by. We love them even more for their minimal houses filled with light, quirky furniture, and lots and lots of plants.
SANAA is Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa. Based in Tokyo, their architecture has been described as metaphysical, dreamlike, and ethereal. A reaction to the chaos and cluttered complexity of the modern world, says Kristine Guzmán, architect and curator at MUSAC, “SANAA’s houses are capable of transforming a person’s way of life.”
Taking cues from our favorite houseplant loving design icons, here’s our guide to bringing a little SANAA into your world. Click through to check it out and let us know what inspired you the most in the comments!
Sure, recent media coverage has been dominated by March Madness, but the betting classes of the architecture world were in a tizzy of their own this weekend with the announcement of the 2010 Pritzker Prize. The Pritzker — think March Madness meets the Oscars meets the Super Bowl, but for architects — was founded in 1979 and first bestowed upon Modernist master Philip Johnson. This year’s committee, heavily favored to honor Stephen Holl, instead picked Japanese design duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, aka SANAA. Visual primer after the jump.
Designers of New York’s New Museum, SANAA have captivated London with their sleek, organic Serpentine Pavilion.
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa started the firm in 1995, but it’s their minimalist projects of the past decade that have brought them international acclaim. From the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan to the Zollverein School in Germany, their buildings reveal an abstract approach to the investigation of space. Read More »
We’ve been curious about how SANAA’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion would turn out since we read that the Tokyo-based architecture firm (made up of husband and wife team Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) had been chosen to transform a small corner of Hyde Park from July through this coming October. Read More »
