Serpentine Pavilion 2019: Design Render, Exterior View - © Junya Ishigami + Associates.
Serpentine Pavilion 2019: Design Render, Exterior View – © Junya Ishigami + Associates.

London – A single canopy roof that looks like it emerges from the lawn of Kensington Gardens will create a cave-like refuge for contemplation. The Serpentine Pavilion 2019 by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami was conceived as space where to find harmony between the man-made and the Nature-made.

Serpentine Pavilion 2019: Design Render, Interior View - © Junya Ishigami + Associates.
Design Render, Interior View – © Junya Ishigami + Associates.

‘My design for the Pavilion emphasises a natural and organic feel as though it had grown out of the lawn, resembling a hill made out of rocks.” Explained the Tokyo-based architect, founder of Junya Ishigami + Associates.

“This is an attempt to supplement traditional architecture with modern methodologies and concepts, to create in this place an expanse of scenery like never seen before. Possessing the weighty presence of slate roofs seen around the world, and simultaneously appearing so light it could blow away in the breeze, the cluster of scattered rock levitates, like a billowing piece of fabric.”

Junya Ishigami, Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center, Tytsjerk, The Netherlands, 2012 - © Junya Ishigami + Associates.
Junya Ishigami, Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center, Tytsjerk, The Netherlands, 2012 – © Junya Ishigami + Associates.

Celebrated for his experimental structures that interpret traditional architectural conventions and reflect natural phenomena, Junya Ishigami is the nineteenth architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn.

Junya Ishigami, 11th Venice Architectural Biennale, Japanese Pavilion, 2008, © Junya Ishigami + Associates.
Junya Ishigami, 11th Venice Architectural Biennale, Japanese Pavilion, 2008, © Junya Ishigami + Associates.

In 2008, Junya Ishigami + Associates created four ethereal green houses for the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2008. Designed without air-control systems, chairs, cabinets and doors blurred seamlessly architecture and nature.

Junya Ishigami, KAIT Workshop, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Japan, 2008, © Junya Ishigami + Associates
Junya Ishigami, KAIT Workshop, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Japan, 2008, © Junya Ishigami + Associates.

In 2010, the studio won the Vernice Biennale Golden Lion with a super minimalist exhibition which collapsed during the press preview. For the Kanagawa Institute of Technology’s KAIT Workshop the studio conceived a see-through flexible space nesting a forest of 300 white columns.

Junya Ishigami, Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center, Tytsjerk, The Netherlands, 2012, © Junya Ishigami + Associates.
Junya Ishigami, Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center, Tytsjerk, The Netherlands, 2012, © Junya Ishigami + Associates.

The studio also teamed with Studio Maks to complete the 19th-century Park Vijversburg in the Netherlands which features intersecting glass corridors providing views out across different parts of the landscape. The proposal for The House of Peace in Copenhagen was imagined as a huge cloud resting over an artificial island with a water-filled floor. The monumental project was developed in collaboration with Svendborg Architects.

The House of Peace -© Junya Ishigami + Associates.
The House of Peace -© Junya Ishigami + Associates.

All photos: courtesy of the Serpentine Gallery.

Junya Ishigami, Botanical Garden Art Biotop : Water Garden, Tochigi, Japan, 2018, © Junya Ishigami + Associates
Junya Ishigami, Botanical Garden Art Biotop : Water Garden, Tochigi, Japan, 2018, © Junya Ishigami + Associates.