The Artist and the Architect

The 2007 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is one of the projects that I thought was very interesting, in both good and bad ways.  One of the reasons I chose to analyze this particular work is because it was completed by a joint effort from an architect, Kjetil Thorsen, and an artist, Olafur Eliasson.  After doing some research on the pair, I learned that Thorsen, who is a co-founder of the Snohetta firm, is quite artistically influenced in his architectural designs, and Eliasson has a keen sense of the spatial qualities about art.  This combination is unique in the fact that the final results offer a balance between artistic details and spatial aspects from both the artist and the architect.  I like the transition of space from outdoors to indoors with the use of the ramp, creating a gradual movement indoors, and the detail of the twisted wires, providing a porous partition between the inside and outside. (shown in the model I created) This slit that moves around the whole structure and opens up into the larger space inside further enhances this transitional aspect.  I very much like the movement of space in general, however I do think that this structure does not fully represent my idea of a pavilion specific to this site. Compared to the other Serpentine Gallery Pavilions, this one is the most “building-like”. There does not seem to be much connection with the surroundings, which I think should be an integral part in designing a pavilion.