Scheme to be based on curvy ’crinkle-crankle’ walls found in some traditional English gardens
Mexican architecture practice LANZA Atelier has been selected to design the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion in Kensington Gardens.
Plans for the annual commission, named A Serpentine, were unveiled this morning. The pavilion references an English brick garden wall, and will be installed outside the Serpentine Gallery from 6 June to 25 October 2026.
The pavilion takes its inspiration from an English architectural feature known as a serpentine, or a crinkle-crankle wall.
This is a one-brick-thick wall with a curvy or snake-like shape. The curves in the wall provide stability by helping the structure to resist lateral forces, meaning the wall can be built with fewer bricks than a straight wall.
The feature originated in Ancient Egypt, but was later introduced to England by Dutch engineers.
The main structure is positioned on the northern side of the site. A translucent roof will rest on brick columns, “evoking a grove of trees”. The pavilion’s configuration will allow light and air to permeate the structure, “softening the boundary between enclosure and openness”.
LANZA atelier was founded in 2015 by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo and is based in Mexico City.
“We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to share our work with a wider public and to contribute to the Pavilion’s ongoing legacy of spatial experimentation and collective encounter,” the firm said.
“Set within a garden, an evocation of the natural world, the project takes the form of a serpentine wall, conceived as a device that both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation, and pause.”
Throughout the summer, the Serpentine Pavilion will become a platform for the gallery’s events programme, including film, music, philosophy, and dance.
Bettina Korek, chief executive at the Serpentine said: “For 25 years, the Serpentine Pavilion has been a leading global platform for architectural experimentation - first inviting internationally significant architects yet to build in London, and later championing emerging voices. It offers a rare brief: to test ambitious ideas in an open, accessible setting.”
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