Take a peek inside a serpentine, the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Mexico City's LANZA atelier. It opens to the public in London's Kensington Gardens on June 6 and remains on display until October 25, hosting Serpentine's public programming.
Back in January, Serpentine selected LANZA atelier, the Mexico City studio of Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, to design the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion—the 25th such pavilion mounted by the arts institution since it was inaugurated in 2000 with a folded triangulated structure designed by Zaha Hadid. This milestone means some of the programming taking place inside the pavilion and Serpentine's adjacent gallery building will celebrate the silver anniversary as well as the legacy of Zaha Hadid, in collaboration with the Zaha Hadid Foundation and the Architectural Association.
LANZA atelier is the second practice from Mexico to design a Serpentine Pavilion, following Frida Escobedo's contribution in 2018. Where the walls of Escobedo's structure were made from British-made cement roof tiles, Abascal and Arienzo have used bricks stacked in curvilinear walls to evoke the form of a serpent, reference traditional English gardens, and converse with the original Serpentine building, designed by J. Grey West in 1934 building and visible in the aerial photograph.
LANZA opted for curved walls as, among other things, a means of reducing materials by half: “Its curvilinear form provides stability through lateral support,” reads a statement from Serpentine, “meaning the one-brick-wide serpentine wall requires fewer bricks than a straight wall.” Additional support was provided by a slender steel subframe within the walls, used in part to aid in demounting and rebuilding the pavilion after it closes in October.
Opposite the tightly curved brick wall is a gently flowing brick wall whose shape respects an existing tree and whose path echoes the nearby Serpentine lake. Bridging the two walls is a translucent roof that rests on slender brick columns that are meant to evoke a grove of trees. A third wall, knee height for sitting, curves along the lawn beside the pavilion. In addition to the pavilion itself, LANZA designed the chairs and stools that are found inside the pavilion, each made from sapele hardwood and made locally.
“Set within a garden, an evocation of the natural world, the project takes the form of a serpentine wall, conceived as a device that both reveals and withholds; shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation and pause. Inspired by the figure of the serpent as a generative and protective force, we draw a parallel with England’s winding fruit walls, which are structures that temper climate, create shelter, and enable growth. From this idea emerges a pavilion built of simple clay brick, foregrounding vernacular craft and the elemental capacity of architecture to bring people together. The 2026 Pavilion proposes built forms that are permeable, shaped and held by a gentle geometry, and continually responsive to those who move through it.”
