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A Look at the Last 8 Editions of the Serpentine Pavilion

June 07, 2024

Since its launch in 2000, the Serpentine Pavilion has been providing renowned and emerging architects with a platform for design experimentation, becoming an important display of contemporary architecture. Each year, the commissioned architects and designers envision a temporary structure that speaks not only to their roots as creators, but also brings into focus what they consider to be important themes in the architectural world, from the need to redefine spaces for contemplation or conviviality, to explorations into the potential of natural materials or vernacular building techniques. On the day of the public opening of the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion, the "Archipelagic Void" designed by Korean architect Minsuk Cho and his firm Mass Studies, we look back at the last eight editions of the famous annual structure.

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On Ethics and Fair Labor in Architecture: The Example of Theaster Gates’ Serpentine Pavilion Design

May 23, 2024

When he was invited to design the 21st Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens public park, Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates envisioned a calm space to offer respite and a subtle exploration into the power of sound and music in architecture. Created out of lightweight stained wood, the “Black Chapel” demonstrates more than just artistic and architectural sensibilities. In addition to the use of sustainable materials, the project also pays close attention to how the building materials are sourced, bringing visibility to the problem of modern slavery in the construction materials supply chain.

To ensure fair labor conditions not just on-site, but throughout the entire production process, the Serpentine Pavilion collaborated with Grace Farms, a US-based non-profit foundation helping designers and industry leaders to eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain, thus establishing more ethical practices and a more humane future.

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Grace Farms Opens Long-Term Exhibition Focused on Forced Labor and Building Materials Supply Chains

May 06, 2024

On May 4, 2024, cultural center Grace Farms opened a new long-term exhibition that aims to shed light on the inner workings of the building industry, offering insights into the methods of producing and distributing building materials, as well as the pervasive practices of forced labor happening in the materials supply chain worldwide. The exhibition also presents the work of “Design for Freedom,” a collaborative global movement launched in 2020 at Grace Farms. The initiative aims to change architecture by raising awareness of these issues and helping disrupt forced labor in the construction industry. Titled “With Every Fiber,” the exhibit is free to visit both at its physical location in New Canaan, Connecticut, and online as a virtual exhibition.

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Theaster Gates Receives the 2023 Vincent Scully Prize

October 16, 2023

The National Building Museum announced that Theaster Gates will be the 25th recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize. Initiated in 1999, the award serves as a recognition of excellence in the fields of design, architecture, historic preservation, urban design, encompassing practice, and criticism. Theaster Gates is an artist internationally renowned for his interdisciplinary blend of social performance, urban regeneration, and cultural activations.

Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation Transforms St. Laurence Elementary School into a Cultural Hub for Chicago

August 09, 2023

Rebuild Foundation, run by Artist Theaster Gates, is converting the St. Laurence Elementary School into a new 40,000 sq foot arts hub on Chicago’s South Side. The formerly vacant elementary school in Chicago’s local St. Laurence neighborhood has been reimagined to redeem indoor and outdoor spaces, making it a cultural hub. Set to open in 2024, the building's adaptive reuse expanded the program and the landmark into a place of exploration, entrepreneurship, and creative education.

The 22nd Serpentine Pavillion: Crafting Spaces that Inspire Conversations

June 09, 2023

As you make your way through the symphony of wooden colonnades, leafy screen walls, and unfurled roofing, towards the converging veins of flooring and ceiling ribs leading to the light, it feels like a space that was always meant to be there. Part of the park, the pavilion complements the nature around it, reflecting its patterns, and illuminates a main interior feature: a concentric set of tables and stools that inspire people to sit at the moment, hold conversations, and connect with each other. This narrative tells the tale of this year's Serpentine Pavilion, designed by French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh.

Titled, À table, It draws inspiration from the designer’s connection with nature growing up and is reminiscent of the French call to sit together at a table, share a meal and enter a dialogue. It foregrounds the table as a laboratory of ideas, concerns, joys, connections, and essentially brings people together. It further reflects on the architectural ideals that can provoke and welcome moments of collective conversations.

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Asif Khan and Theaster Gates Release New Vision for Liverpool’s Waterfront Transformation Project

May 01, 2023

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has revealed a revised version of the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront, led by architect Asif Khan and artist Theaster Gates. The plans include the redesign of the public spaces at Canning Dock, a historical area central to the Liverpool docks. As part of the Waterfront Transformation Project, the interventions aim to create accessible public spaces to better serve the community and to create a link between the surrounding museums. The preliminary proposal is now open for public consultation.

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2023 Venice Architecture Biennale: 63 National Pavilions and 89 Participants with Significant Representation from Africa

February 22, 2023

Announced today in a live presentation, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, titled The Laboratory of the Future, curated by Lesley Lokko, will be open to the public from May 20 to November 26, 2023, in Venice, Italy. This edition will include 63 National Pavilions, 27 of which are at the Giardini, 22 at the Arsenale, and 14 in the city center of Venice. Structured in six parts, the exhibition will include 89 Participants, over half of whom are from Africa or the African Diaspora, with a 50/50 gender balance, and an average age of 43 for participants. Contributors include Adjaye Associates, atelier masōmī, Kéré Architecture, MASS Design Group, Sumayya Vally and Moad Musbahi, Theaster Gates Studio, Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation, Liam Young, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, to name a few.

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Crafting for Contemplation: The Minimal vs. The Ornamental

June 29, 2022

A few weeks ago, this year’s edition of the Serpentine Pavilion opened to the public. Designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, it’s an evocative project, its cylindrical form referencing American beehive kilns, English bottle kilns, and Musgum adobe homes found in Cameroon.

What the pavilion is named tells the viewer a lot more about its intentions as a spatial experience. Titled Black Chapel, it houses a spacious room with wraparound benches, and an oculus above that allows daylight to filter into the space. It’s a fairly minimal interior – designed as a site for contemplation and reflection. This minimal quality of Gates’ Serpentine Pavilion raises particularly interesting questions. How artists and architects opt for a “less is more” approach when designing meditative spaces, but also how these introspective spaces have been equally enhanced by ornamentation.

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Black Chapel, Theaster Gates' 2022 Serpentine Pavilion is Now Open

June 10, 2022

The 21st Serpentine Pavilion, Black Chapel, designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates opens today, on June 10, 2022. On display until the 16^th of October 2022, the project is realized with the architectural support of Adjaye Associates with Goldman Sachs’ patronage. In 2021, the Pavilion events program was planned to reflect Gates’ concept of interlinking architecture and music, particularly emphasizing artistic explorations of monastic sounds and hymns. The pavilion will act as a platform for Serpentine’s live program throughout the summer, offering the public space of reflection, connection, and joy.

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Chicago-Based Artist Theaster Gates Reveals Design for the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion

February 03, 2022

American artist Theaster Gates unveiled his design for the 21st Serpentine Pavilion. Curated for the first time by a non-architect, the 2022 edition named Black Chapel, “will pay homage to British craft and manufacturing traditions”. Realized with the architectural support of Adjaye Associates, the pavilion will open to the public on Friday 10 June 2022, in Kensington Gardens.

Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces 2019 Early Highlight Contributors

March 15, 2019

The third Chicago Architecture Biennial will occur from September 19, 2019, to January 5, 2020, and yesterday the first group of contributors to the 2019 edition and publication was announced. This year’s theme, “...and other such stories,” will bring together a multi-faceted and international exploration of architecture and the built environment. Newly commissioned projects for the Biennial will highlight issues including public housing, social justice, and the appropriation and preservation of the natural environment.

9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment to Consider in Order to Improve Communities, Not Gentrify Them

January 30, 2018

A version of this article was originally published by Common Edge as "The Principles of Ethical Redevelopment."

Where does creativity live? Can the highest level of cultural production come from down the street? What does it mean to be a good neighbor, a good steward? How does that look when there are so many forces at work keeping people isolated? How do you see value in what others discard? Can we learn to talk about moments of success in our struggling neighborhoods, not as random and magical, but as sophisticated flexibility? What is civic empathy?

These are some of the questions Place Lab, a University of Chicago partnership between Arts + Public Life and the Harris School for Public Policy, explored in an exercise last year conducted with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: it’s the articulation of a set of nine principles collectively called Ethical Redevelopment.

Theaster Gates Wins 2017 Edmund N. Bacon Award

January 13, 2017

The Center for Architecture and Design has announced Theaster Gates as the 2017 recipient of its Edmund N. Bacon Award, which honors one individual who has advocated for excellence in urban development, planning, thought, and design.

A Chicago-based artist and community developer, Gates is the founder of the Rebuild Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of urban life by planning and designing active and engaged communities. “Under Gates’ leadership, the Rebuild Foundation currently manages projects in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. Program sites include the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Black Cinema House, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, Archive House, and Listening House.”

Theaster Gates: The Latest Architecture and News