Sou Fujimoto to design Serpentine Pavilion 2013

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto will design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013, the Serpentine Gallery's annual summer pavilion commission. At 41, Fujimoto is the youngest architect to design a temporary structure for the Gallery, and the third Japanese architect to be invited to design the structure.

Occupying 350 square metres of lawn in front of the Serpentine Gallery, Fujimoto proposes a delicate, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles with a lightweight and semi-transparent appearance that will allow the pavilion to blend into the landscape. The space will be flexible, encouraging visitors to enter and interact with the Pavilion.

"For the 2013 Pavilion I propose an architectural landscape: a transparent terrain that encourages people to interact with and explore the site in diverse ways," stated Fujimoto about his proposal. "A new form of environment will be created, where the natural and the man-made merge; not solely architectural nor solely natural, but a unique meeting of the two."

"The Pavilion will be a delicate, three-dimensional structure, each unit of which will be composed of fine steel bars," Fujimoto continues."It will form a semi-transparent, irregular ring, simultaneously protecting visitors from the elements while allowing them to remain part of the landscape. The overall footprint will be 350 square metres and the Pavilion will have two entrances. A series of stepped terraces will provide seating areas that will allow the Pavilion to be used as a flexible, multi-purpose social space."

"The delicate quality of the structure, enhanced by its semi-transparency, will create a geometric, cloud-like form," remarks Fujimoto, "as if it were mist rising from the undulations of the park. From certain vantage points, the Pavilion will appear to merge with the classical structure of the Serpentine Gallery, with visitors suspended in space."

Inspired by organic structures, Fujimoto's signature buildings inhabit a space between nature and artificiality. The majority of his work is located in Japan, ranging from domestic structures such as Final Wooden House, T House and House N, to the institutional, such as the Musashino Art Museum and Library at Musashino Art University.

"We are thrilled to be working with one of the most fascinating architects in the world today," stated Serpentine Gallery Director Julia Peyton-Jones and Co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist. "A visionary, who has conceived an extraordinary response to our invitation to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, Sou Fujimoto has designed a structure that will enthral everyone that encounters it throughout the summer."