Film: following up in our exclusive video series celebrating the 15th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones seems back at how Zaha Hadid’s marquee from 2000 launched the annual commission.
The initial Serpentine Gallery Pavilion was created by Zaha Hadid in 2000, which the gallery commissioned as a one particular-off project to host a fundraising gala marking its 30th anniversary.
“We asked her to do it – which she did as an tremendous favour as a gesture of friendship – since we desired to do something fully different to something we would completed prior to,” Peyton-Jones explains in the movie.
Initially, the framework was going to be taken down after just one particular evening, but Peyton-Jones was ready to convince former member of parliament Chris Smith, secretary of state for culture, media and sport at the time, to allow the gallery keep it up for longer.
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“What was outstanding was that Chris Smith was at the gala and I was in a position to inquire if we could hold this up for longer than a evening,” she explains. “He explained: ‘Absolutely’. He loved Zaha’s perform and it stayed up for two months throughout the summer season.”
Hadid’s pavilion consisted of a series of large white triangular panels supported by a steel frame. Within, Hadid made bespoke black, white and grey tables.
“It was a framework of swooping kinds,” Peyton-Jones says. “The within of the pavilion went from black to white, so you had these tables laid out that spread throughout the entire of the interior.”
The Serpentine Gallery went on to commission a various architect to produce a pavilion every 12 months, supplying them the opportunity to produce their 1st built construction in England. Subsequent pavilion architects have incorporated Peter Zumthor, Herzog & de Meuron and Sou Fujimoto.
This year, Spanish architects SelgasCano created a structure wrapped in layers of coloured, translucent and mirrored plastic sheet.
In 2013, Hadid also designed a long term extension housing a cafe and events area for the neighbouring Serpentine Sackler Gallery.
Peyton-Jones says the inaugural pavilion was instrumental to the achievement of the Serpentine Gallery’s long term projects.
“It was extremely Zaha, but naturally in a quite paired down way and I felt quite proud of it,” she says. “It really set the bar for what was to adhere to, which was incredibly critical.”
Julia Peyton-Jones. Copyright: Dezeen
This film was filmed by Dezeen at the Serpentine Gallery in London. All photography is by Hélène Binet, courtesy of Serpentine Galleries, except if otherwise stated.
Dezeen will be seeking back at each of the pavilions from 2000 to 2015 in subsequent films over the following weeks. You can observe all the movies as we publish them on our YouTube playlist:
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