Movie: in this exclusive video filmed at the unveiling of the 15th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, architects José Selgas and Lucía Cano make clear how their framework plays with coloured, translucent and mirrored plastic sheet.
SalgasCano’s pavilion, which opens to the public later on this week, consists of two layers of coloured ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) plastic wrapped around a white steel frame.
“The total pavilion for us was a variety of experiment,” says Selgas in the movie. “We wished to check distinct things with a new materials, in this case ETFE. We wanted to try out [how the material could develop] diverse shadows, colours and effects, which we have not examined just before.”
Some parts of SelgasCano’s structure are covered with large sheets of coloured ETFE, although other areas characteristic strips of the material wrapped close to the steel frame. The Madrid-based architects also chose to differ the opacity of the material across the skin of the pavilion.
“We made a decision to play with the ETFE in numerous methods,” Selgas says. “We developed different effects by exploring what the choices are when you hold the transparency, or if you include distinct mirror effects.”
The layers of coloured plastic cast multicoloured patterns across the floor of the pavilion when the sun shines.
Related story: Serpentine Pavilion 2015 by SelgasCano photographed by Iwan Baan
“The most important colour for us is the colour of the floor,” Selgas says. “It was very critical for it to be white to get all the results from the roof.”
The construction consists of four arms, which branch off from a central area housing a bar and meeting space. Selgas says this type evolved organically as the architects experimented with how the ETFE sheets could be stretched across the steel frame.
“Men and women ask us why we chose this shape,” Selgas says. “But the form comes from attempting to stretch the materials as considerably as feasible.”
There are multiple entrances and exits to the pavilion and no prescribed route by way of the structure. Selgas says he is keen to see how folks use the space.
“The experiment is also extremely considerably associated to the folks that are going to visit the pavilion,” he says. “We want them to decide how to interpret the pavilion, how they want to move around. It really is really cost-free in that way.”
The 2015 Serpentine Pavilion will open on 25 June and close on 18 October. It will host a amount of events and public talks, as effectively as a series of evening occasions sponsored by style brand COS.
To mark the 15th anniversary of the pavilion programme, Dezeen will be publishing a series of unique interviews with director Julia Peyton-Jones, looking back at every of the types. In the 1st film in the series, Peyton-Jones compares SelgasCano’s use of coloured plastic to stained glass.
José Selgas Lucía Cano. Copyright: Dezeen
This film was filmed by Dezeen at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London. Photography is by Jim Stephenson, except if otherwise stated.
