The Serpentine announced that the Mexican architectural firm Lanza Atelier, founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, has been selected to design the 2026 Pavilion. 

Dubbed a serpentine, the Serpentine Pavilion will be unveiled to the public at Serpentine South. On June 6, 2026. The Lanza Atelier's Pavilion is being financed by Goldman Sachs for the twelfth consecutive year. In a unique partnership with the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the Serpentine will celebrate the Pavilion's 25th anniversary.

Over the years, the Serpentine Pavilion has developed into a much-anticipated platform for young talents. Over time, the Pavilion has developed into a collaborative public and creative venue for Serpentine's transdisciplinary, experimental, communal, and educational initiatives.

Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo established the architecture firm Lanza Atelier in Mexico City in 2015. Their cooperative approach is grounded in the commonplace and informal, paying close attention to how technology, craft, and spatial intelligence manifest in unforeseen circumstances. 

By identifying beauty in usage, assembly, and encounter, their work offers strategies for constructing that emphasize communication and group experience.

The pair embraces pragmatic design techniques like model-making and sketching as active instruments for considering material, form, and structure. The studio, which operates internationally, views architectural practice as one that, from a critical and involved standpoint, flows fluidly between cultural spaces, residential projects, public infrastructure, and furniture design.

Serpentine Pavilion 2026, a serpentine, designed by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, Lanza Atelier. Design render, aerial view. © Lanza Atelier. Image courtesy of Serpentine

"The project takes the form of a serpentine wall"

"It is an honour to be selected as the architects of the 25th Serpentine Pavilion, a milestone year for the commission," said Lanza Atelier.

"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." 

"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," Atelier added.

The English architectural element known as a serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall, which forms one side of the pavilion, served as the model for Lanza Atelier's Serpentine Pavilion this year. 

Originating in ancient Egypt, Dutch engineers brought this kind of alternating-curved brick wall to England. The one-brick-wide serpentine wall requires less bricks than a straight wall because of its curved shape, which offers stability through lateral support. 

The neighboring Serpentine Lake, so named because of its soft curve that resembles a serpent, is also quietly referenced by the feature of the same name.

Serpentine's CEO, Bettina Korek, alongside Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist, Director of Construction and Special Projects Julie Burnell, Exhibitions Curators Chris Bayley and Tamsin Hong, Assistant Exhibitions Curator Liz Stumpf, and advisor Sou Fujimoto, selected this year's Pavilion.To accompany the Pavilion, Serpentine will publish the first monograph from Lanza Atelier. 

Created by Estudio Herrera, this publication will present fresh and insightful ideas from the fields of poetry, art, and architecture. It will also feature an essay by José Esparza Chong Cuy and an in-depth discussion between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Lanza Atelier, all richly illustrated in color.

Founded in 2015 by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo in Mexico City, Lanza Atelier has quickly gained recognition in the architectural world for their unique and meaningful approach to design. Their goal is to contribute positively to the beauty of our surroundings, and their efforts have not gone unnoticed.

The studio has received several prestigious nominations, including the Ibero-American Architecture Biennial Award and the Mies Crown Hall Award for Emerging Architects, both in 2016 and 2022. They were also nominated for the Brick Award in 2021, showcasing their continuous impact in the field.

In 2017, Lanza Atelier won the Young Architects Prize, and in 2023, they were honored with the Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York. This accolade highlighted their creative work that exhibits a keen sensitivity to context and refined design across various scales.

Their work has been widely exhibited, including a solo show at SFMOMA in 2018, and participation in significant events like the São Paulo Architecture Biennale and the Lisbon Triennale in 2019, as well as the Concéntrico Festival in 2021. They have also shared their insights through lectures at several universities, including Yale and Syracuse.

Looking ahead, Lanza Atelier has exciting projects lined up. They will hold a solo exhibition focused on their furniture designs at AGO Projects in Mexico City on February 3, 2026. Additionally, they are set to design the Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo for the upcoming 61st Venice Art Biennale, which will feature a new commission by the artist Brilant Milazimi.

Lanza Atelier continues to push the boundaries of architecture and design, leaving a lasting impression on the industry and inspiring future generations.

The 2025 Serpentine Pavilion was designed by Bangladeshi architect and educator Marina Tabassum in London's Kensington Gardens. 

The top image in the article: Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo of LANZA atelier. Photography © Pia Riverola.

> via Serpentine 

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