Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002

Serpentine Gallery Pavilions: Annual Architectural Commissions and Public Programmes

Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond’s 2002 Pavilion was an exploration of the columnless box, an algorithm of a cube that expanded as it rotated. The structure was made up of lines crossing in space, a visual puzzle that pushed the eye around its form. The numerous triangles and trapezoids formed by this system of intersecting lines were clad to be either transparent or translucent, giving a sense of infinitely repeated motion. The whole concept of the permeable, temporary structure appealed to Ito’s fondness for lightness and ethereality.