The author of the 2013 Serpentine Gallery summer pavilion will be Sou Fujimoto

The London Serpentine Gallery yesterday unveiled the project for this year's summer pavilion. The designer of the thirteenth installation in front of the gallery, located in Kensington Gardens, is architect Sou Fujimoto, who is the third Japanese person commissioned for this prestigious project in the gallery's thirteen-year history. Eleven years ago, Toyo Ito was invited to London, and in 2009, it was the studio SANAA. The fresh forty-year-old Fujimoto is also the youngest designer in the history of the Serpentine summer pavilions. This year's design features a dense three-dimensional mesh of thin 20mm steel profiles, which ultimately creates the appearance of a white abstract cloud that descended onto the lawn in front of the gallery, covering an area of 350m².
Fujimoto aims to create with his lattice-like sculpture an “architectural landscape represented by a transparent terrain that visitors will be able to explore and interact with.” The new structure built on the meadow will strive for a connection with nature as well as the human-made environment. The pavilion will have two entrances. Inside, a café and a series of tiered terraces will provide seating. This ethereal building will attract not only Londoners but also many admirers of modern architecture from around the world. The pavilion will traditionally open at the beginning of July, with its gates definitively closing at the end of September.