For 22 years, curators at London’s Serpentine Galleries have selected architects to design one large pavilion on the east lawn of the Hyde Park gallery. This summer, its chosen architect, Minsuk Cho of Seoul practice Mass Studies, designed five.

Cho watched from the other side of the world as successive Serpentine Pavilions unfolded and delighted ‘like a series of episodes’. He synthesised them and then riffed on them. His final scheme, Archipelagic Void, is composed of five ‘islands’ that radiate outwards from a circular plaza. Like paths in the park, they slope with the landscape, each looking out in a different direction to a different view.

Cho says his impetus was to bring a variety of choices to the table, much like Korean dining. ‘A typical Korean meal is spread out everywhere,’ he says. ‘Everyone sits around the table, everyone has their own sequence of dishes.’

Inside, the multiple pavilions offer different programmes with distinct characters. The gallery has installed its requisite cafe in one of the larger spaces while a rope climbing frame is stretched across another. One has a library of so-called ‘unread’ books; another pipes in ambient music. Overhead, translucent roofs hold the dew, reflect the sky and collect fallen leaves.

‘Each gives a nice intimacy, but also a nice distance, so several things can happen together,’ says Cho. ‘Places are defined and not defined, versatile without compartmentalising.’ He says he feels it is the responsibility of architects like himself to bring diverse activities and people together so that people can discover their own narratives. Time will tell whether this bears out.

‘Looking backward as he pushes forward’ was how the Serpentine’s CEO, Bettina Korek, described the process, pointing to an achievement that marks a watershed for the programme.

The pavilion is open to the public until 27 October 2024.

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