A harmonious blend of context and concept: Mass Studies reimagines the Serpentine Pavilion
By Ben Flatman2024-06-06T06:16:00
Mass Studies’ innovative design for this year’s Serpentine Pavilion reimagines traditional concepts, blending contextual sensitivity with conceptual boldness, writes Ben Flatman
This year’s Serpentine Pavilion has been designed by Mass Studies, the South Korean practice founded by Minsuk Cho. In a break from previous incarnations, rather than having a primary large space with a loosely defined purpose, Cho’s concept seeks to provide an explicit programme of uses for the five distinct modules that are ranged around its central courtyard. These include a ‘tea house’, auditorium-cum-great hall, acoustic installation, ‘play tower’ and a library of ‘unread books’.
The result is a little like entering an exploded diagram, with the five rooms seemingly straining to escape each other’s gravitational pull. While a circular open-air ‘madang’ (Korean for ‘yard’) imposes a formal order on the overall composition, it has a tension that pulls and pushes the visitor between the varied sensory experiences within each of these five “content machines”.
Cho tells BD that the timber-framed pavilion seeks to blend a contextual approach with the more wilful imposition of an almost site-defying concept. “Sometimes I come up with some ideas and then go to the site and realise it’s completely the wrong idea”, Cho explains. “But it’s always good to have the conceptual and contextual – the two things together.”
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