Serpentine Pavilion 2020 designed by Counterspace, Design Render, Exterior View © Counterspace
London’s Serpentine Galleries has announced it will postpone its 2020 summer pavilion by Counterspace until next year because of lockdown.
It will be the first time in 20 years that the gallery has not held its annual event, which invites an international practice to build an experimental pavilion in the gallery’s Kensington Gardens grounds – the architects’ first UK project.
South African practice Counterspace will still build its pavilion, whose designs were revealed earlier this year. However, the timeline has been ‘extended into a two-year commission,’ the Serpentine said in a statement on its website, as it has been impossible to build the structure because of COVID-19 shutdowns.
Architect and Serpentines trustee David Adjaye explained: ‘The global Covid-19 crisis has changed the immediate context. Rather than rush to execute Counterspace’s stellar design as soon as it is safe to do so, the Serpentine has chosen to accept the slowness reshaping society today and utilise it to develop a deeper relationship with the architects.’
The Serpentine Pavilion’s new opening dates have not yet been announced.
