The 2025 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum Architects opened in London last week, and very beautiful it is too. My photos were taken on a cloudy day, and everything looks better in the sun, so here are the official photos and a little text from the Serpentine website:

Along the north-south axis of the park, ‘A Capsule in Time’ features an elongated capsule-like form with a central court that aligns with Serpentine South’s bell tower. Inspired by summer park-going and arched garden canopies that filter soft daylight through green foliage, the structure is comprised of four wooden sculptural forms with a translucent façade that diffuses and dapples light when it enters the space. Integral to Tabassum’s design is a kinetic element where one of the capsule forms is able to move, connect and transform the Pavilion into a new space.

Serpentine Pavilion 2025 *A Capsule in Time*, designed by Marina Tabassum, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA). Exterior view. © Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), Photo Iwan Baan, Courtesy: Serpentine.

Emphasising the sensory and spiritual possibilities of architecture through scale and the interplay of light and shadow, Tabassum’s design draws on the history and architectural tradition of Shamiyana tents or awnings of South Asia. Similarly kinetic in their function, these structures are made of fabric supported by bamboo poles and are commonly erected for outdoor gatherings and celebrations.

The archive for the Pavilion project is well worth poking around and has some fantastic information and links. The reference to Shamiyaana tents put me in mind of Rasheed Araeen’s work of the same name, first performed in Athens for Documenta 14 (2017), then in Abu Dhabi by Grosvenor Gallery (2021), and outside Tate Modern during his Tate Play performance of Zero to Infinity in 2023. That was also the name of Rasheed’s London restaurant, opened several years ago in Stoke Newington. From the archive I particularly enjoyed seeing images of Rasheed’s ‘pre-pavillion’ structure, erected on the lawn in 1996. Rasheed Araeen: To Whom it May Concern was the first commission installed on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn as part of the Inside Out series during the gallery’s renovation in 1996/97.

The installation consisted of a huge box-like structure made entirely of builders’ scaffolding. Over a thousand metre-cubed modules made up a solid mass of this material. When seen from a distance, the piece resembled a crystalline form, whilst closer inspection revealed a maze-like route through at ground level.

Visitors had the opportunity to enter the work and experience the powerful visual effects engendered by the combination of movement and perspective within such a large repetitive structure. For Rasheed, part of the beauty of the work was that the individual pieces would be returned to the scaffolder’s yard and be repurposed on regular building projects - elevating a humble object to high-art and back again.

Serpentine Pavilion 2025 - Marina Tabassum Architects

Art Mumbai 2024