Serpentine has unveiled new details for its 2026 Pavilion by Mexico City-based architecture studio LANZA atelier, marking the 25th edition of one of architecture’s most influential annual commissions.
Opening to the public on 6th June and remaining on view through 25th October at Serpentine South, the Pavilion continues a legacy that has evolved into a platform for experimentation, public engagement and emerging architectural voices. The milestone edition will also celebrate the legacy of the Pavilion’s inaugural architect, Zaha Hadid, through a special collaboration with the Zaha Hadid Foundation and the Architectural Association.
Founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo in 2015, LANZA atelier has developed a practice centred on materiality, craftsmanship and spatial dialogue. Working across architecture, infrastructure and furniture design, the studio approaches architecture as something deeply embedded within social and cultural experience.
For the 2026 Pavilion, LANZA atelier has taken inspiration from the architectural form known as the serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall — a curving brick structure commonly found in Suffolk but with origins in ancient Egypt before being introduced into England by Dutch engineers. The design uses the wall not simply as a structural device but as a conceptual one.
The Pavilion takes shape through two curved walls that engage with both the surrounding landscape and Serpentine’s setting within Hyde Park. A translucent roof rests on rhythmic brick columns designed to evoke a grove of trees, allowing light and air to move through the space while softening the boundaries between inside and outside.
Brick becomes the central material, chosen both as a reference to English garden traditions and as a conversation with the historic brick façade of Serpentine South Gallery itself.
Rather than functioning as barriers, the brick structures gradually shift between opacity and transparency.
LANZA atelier said:
“It is an honour to be selected as the architects of the 25th Serpentine Pavilion, a milestone year for the commission. 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.”
They continued:
“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.”
“Inspired by the figure of the serpent as a generative and protective force, we draw a parallel with England’s winding fruit walls, which are structures that temper climate, create shelter, and enable growth. From this idea emerges a pavilion built of simple clay brick, foregrounding vernacular craft and the elemental capacity of architecture to bring people together.”
The architects have also designed bespoke furniture for the project, creating chairs and stools from locally produced sapele hardwood as an extension of their belief that architecture and furniture belong to the same design process, only at different scales.
Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek said:
“For 25 years, the Serpentine Pavilion has offered something rare, a space where architecture, art and everyday life meet, free and open in the heart of Hyde Park. Each commission is an invitation to test ambitious ideas in one of the world’s great public spaces. With LANZA atelier, we deepen our cultural exchange with Mexico and reaffirm what the Pavilion has always been: a place of connection.”
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director at Serpentine, added:
“Over the last 10 years the Serpentine Pavilion has increasingly focussed on giving opportunities to younger architectural practices. We are excited that Mexican architects LANZA atelier will design the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion.”
“LANZA atelier’s architecture always involves a deep engagement with the local context, materials and lived experience. In their own words, they create contemporary spaces whose energy can last. Their spaces invite people to imagine a more connected, compassionate and creative future.”
As in previous years, the Pavilion will act as an active stage for Serpentine’s summer programme, hosting talks, performances, screenings and interdisciplinary events across music, philosophy, literature, fashion and technology.
Highlights include a conversation between LANZA atelier and Hans Ulrich Obrist on 5th June, the return of Park Nights from July, family days throughout the summer and a dedicated programme celebrating Zaha Hadid’s legacy.
Twenty-five years after Zaha Hadid inaugurated the project with the first Pavilion in 2000, the commission continues to function as both architecture and cultural experiment — temporary structures designed to create lasting conversations.
MORE: serpentinegalleries.org
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- Alessandro Arienzo
- Architectural Association
- Architecture
- Bettina Korek
- Contemporary Architecture
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- Hans Ulrich Obrist
- Hyde Park
- Isabel Abascal
- LANZA atelier
- London Architecture
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- Serpentine Gallery
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