Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen
Artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Kjetil Thorsen, of the architectural practice Snøhetta, designed the Serpentine Gallery’s 2007 Pavilion.
The 2007 Pavilion was a timber-clad structure resembling a spinning top. It brought a dramatic vertical dimension to the more usual single-level Pavilion. A wide, spiralling ramp made two complete turns, ascending from the gallery’s lawn to the seating area and continued upwards, culminating at the highest point in a view across Kensington Gardens and down into the chamber below.
The Pavilion acted as a ‘laboratory’ every Friday night with artists, architects, academics and scientists leading a series of public experiments. The programme Eliasson and Thorsen conceived with the Serpentine began in September and culminated in an extraordinary, two-part, 48-hour Experiment Marathon event exploring the architecture of the senses.
