London, United Kingdom
David Adjaye and his team at Adjaye Associates have completed the 2022 Serpentine Gallery’s “Black Chapel”—a temporary installation within London’s Kensington Gardens that is conceived as a space for gathering, meditation, and participation to put an emphasis on sacred music.
As the creator states the purpose of this structure is to “enter a space of deep reflection and deep participation.”
The design of the pavilion takes inspiration from many of the architectural typologies that ground the artist’s practice.
With its circular geometry, the structure gives references to the bottle kilns of Stoke-on-Trent in England, the beehive kilns of the Western United States, San Pietro, the Roman tempiettos, and traditional African building structures such as the Musgum mud huts of Cameroon and the Kasabi Tombs of Kampala, Uganda.
Drawn to the transcendental environment of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, Gates has also produced a series of new tar paintings, especially for Black Chapel.
Determined to create a space that reflects the artist’s hand and sensibilities, seven panels are hung from the interior structure.
In these works, the artist honors his father’s craft as a roofer and uses roofing strategies and torch down, which requires an open flame to heat the material and affix it to the surface.
Next to the pavilion, there is an operating bronze bell, salvaged from St. Laurence, a landmark Catholic Church that once stood on Chicago’s South Side, stands next to the entrance of the Pavilion.
To reduce its carbon footprint and environmental impact, the pavilion is designed in accordance with Serpentine’s sustainability policy. Occupying 201 square meters, the pavilion reaches 10.7-meter height from ground level to roof apex and it has a diameter of 16 meters on the plan.
With its over 10-meter-tall and 16-meter-diameter structure, the Serpentine Pavilion is the largest to date and has an emphasis on low carbon and reusable materials. Inside, the pavilion has a central oculus becoming a single source of light that floods into the space below.
The Pavilion is mostly made of blackened structural timber clad in plywood “stressed skin” and timber boards stained and treated for external use.
The reason for this is to create a lightweight and fully demountable structure, emphasizing a focus on sustainably sourced materials and providing the reusability of the structure as a whole after its time installed at Serpentine.
To build the pavilion, the artist closely worked with AECOM engineers, the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm.
“The Pavilion appears very simple from the outside, but looks can be deceptive,” said Madalina Taylor, Senior Engineer, AECOM.
After the installation period ends in London’s Kensington Gardens, it will be relocated to a permanent location in the future.
The Pavilion features three large openings, one in the roof and two in the external walls, as well as an internal dividing wall also predominantly made up of timber construction.
Project: The Black Chapel
Architects: Adjaye Associates
Artist: Theaster Gates
Engineering: AECOM
Client: Serpentine Gallery
Photographers: Iwan Baan
