Basel-based architects Herzog & de Meuron are to design this year’s Serpentine Gallery pavilion in London, regarded as a major event in the art world.
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In the year when the Olympic Games come to London, they will be repeating their collaboration with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, with whom they worked on the prize-winning stadium in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.
The project is part of the cultural programme accompanying the Games, and is due to be erected in June.
The team has already revealed a few of the details of their plans for the pavilion. It will have a low platform roof, 12 symbolic columns and a means to collect rainwater and reflect the sky.
“Taking an archaeological approach, this year’s Pavilion will take visitors beneath the Serpentine’s lawn to explore the hidden history of its previous Pavilions,” a statement on the architects’ website says.
In a joint statement the three men described it as “the perfect place to sit, stand, lie down, or just look and be amazed”.
It is the 12th temporary pavilion to be commissioned by the gallery. Last year it was designed by another Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor. Architects who have designed them in the past include Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Oscar Niemeyer, Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel.
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Two exhibitions involving the artist’s work open this month in Lucerne and Winterthur. Ai was due to take part in both, but that changed when he was arrested in Beijing in April for “suspected economic crimes”. He has not been seen since, with Chinese state security believed to be holding him. The government has refused…
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At 154 metres high, Herzog and de Meuron’s tower block for Roche pharmaceuticals will be the country’s tallest building once complete in 2012. Its potential for redefining Basel’s landscape will be on a par with the Swiss Re “Gherkin” in London – another corporate skyscraper delivered by star architect Norman Foster. The use of famous…
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The new pyramid-style building, due to be completed in time for the 2012 London Olympics, is intended to house its huge collection and ease visitor congestion at the world’s most popular modern art museum. Swiss superstar architects Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, who were responsible for the original conversion of the disused power station…
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Swiss superstar architects Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron have been awarded Japan’s “Praemium Imperiale” arts award for their contribution to architecture. Each recipient of the annual award, which is supported by Japan’s imperial family, receives SFr155,000 ($125,000), making it one of the world’s most lucrative art prizes.
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