Mexico City–based architect Frida Escobedo has been selected to design the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion, a prestigious annual commission hosted by the Serpentine Gallery in London, now in its 18th year. Escobedo's proposal is an enclosed courtyard–based design with two rectangular volumes positioned on an angle. The walls will be constructed using a lattice of British-made dark cement roof tiles to re-create a traditional Mexican celosia, or breeze wall, through which air can circulate and visitors can glimpse the surrounding park. An overhead canopy clad with mirrored panels work with a triangular pool to blur the boundaries of the pavilion and reflect the sunlight as it moves across the sky.
“We are delighted to reveal the designs for Frida Escobedo’s Serpentine Pavilion, which promises to be a place both of deep reflection and dynamic encounter," said Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist and CEO Yana Peel in a press release. "With this bold interior, Frida draws history into the present and redefines the meaning of public space. We hope visitors of all ages will create their own experiences in the pavilion this summer as we continue in our aim of bringing the urgency of art and architecture to the widest audiences.”
The youngest architect to accept the invitation to design a Serpentine Pavilion, Escobedo was selected for her residential and commercial work that prioritizes urban reactivation. Since founding her eponymous firm in 2006, Escobedo has had her designs featured in the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012 and 2014 and was recognized by the Architectural League of New York as an Emerging Voice winner in 2017.
"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," Escobedo said in the release. "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."
Escobedo follows in the footsteps of many celebrated architects who have designed the pavilion including Francis Kéré, Hon. FAIA, (2017); Bjarke Ingels Group (2016); SelgasCano (2015); and Smiljan Radic (2014).
The Serpentine Pavilion will be open to the public from June 15 to Oct. 7.
