Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion

The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion was designed by Cecil Balmond and Toyo Ito in 2002.

Cecil Balmond is a designer, engineer, artist, architect, thinker and writer.[1] Toyo Ito is a Japanese architects and is currently based in Tokyo.[2]

Overview

The structure was built for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion programme. The gallery is in London’s Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park [3] and it focuses on modern and contemporary art. Each year the Serpentine Gallery builds a temporary structure for the summer in its grounds. The projects are led by director Julia Peyton-Jones.[4] Balmond has been a key creative force behind the pavilions and has designed structures with Daniel Libeskind (2001), Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura (2005) and Rem Koolhaas (2006). The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion has been hailed as one of the most successful pavilions to date. Jonathan Glancey, architecture critic for UK’s The Guardian called it, “one of the most exquisite and revolutionary buildings of recent times”.[5]

The design is based on an algorithm designed by Balmond. “Although fun to look at, this structure was rooted in complex geometry…the pavilion had no façade and no hidden structural frame behind it… what you saw was 100% pure structure, its holistic beauty like that of a crystal or a snowflake.[6] This is what Balmond did.[7]

  1. Draw a square.
  2. Draw a line from halfway on one side of this square to a third of the way down the clockwise adjacent side.
  3. Repeat for each side.
  4. Extend these four lines in both directions outside the original square until they meet to from a new, rotated square.
  5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 inside the new square.

The Guardian stated: “The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion is a clue to what buildings could be”.[8] Evening Standard called it “Why can’t all new buildings be this good? Toyo Ito’s magical summer pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery is a lesson in imagination.[9]

Balmond was awarded the Gengo Matsui prize for the pavilion. It is one of the highest awards for engineering given in Japan. The pavilion now serves as the beach club restaurant of a luxury hotel in the South of France,[10] Le Beauvallon across the bay from St Tropez.

Ito and Balmond have since collaborated on the Taichung Opera House in Taiwan.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Wikipedia Cecil Balmond". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Balmond. 
  2. ^ "Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects". http://www.toyo-ito.co.jp/. 
  3. ^ "Serpentine Gallery". http://www.serpentinegallery.org/. 
  4. ^ Worsley, Giles (17 July 2002). "Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3580220/Opening-up-a-box-of-delights.html. 
  5. ^ Glancey, Jonathan (23 July 2007). "The guardian". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/jul/23/architecture.art. 
  6. ^ Glancey, Jonathan (23 July 2007). "The guardian". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/jul/23/architecture.art. 
  7. ^ "MARK magazine". http://www.mark-magazine.com/magazine/26#. 
  8. ^ Glancey, Jonathan (8 July 2002). "The guardian". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/jul/08/artsfeatures. 
  9. ^ "London Evening Standard". http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-373399-at-last-amazing-architecture.do. 
  10. ^ "The Sunday Times". http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100606/Plus/plus_01.html. 
  11. ^ "design boom". http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9561/toyo-ito-taichung-metropolitan-opera.html. 

External links