By Josephine Minutillo

Image courtesy Smiljan Radic//A rendering of Smiljan Radic's 2014 Serpentine Pavilion, which will open to the public next week in London.

The Serpentine Pavilion has become one of London’s leading summer attractions since launching in 2000. Last year’s cloud-like structure by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto within the city’s Kensington Gardens was visited by almost 200,000 people. In March, Serpentine Galleries Director Julia Peyton-Jones and Co-Director Hans Ulrich Obrist announced their selection of Chilean architect Smiljan Radic to design the 2014 edition of the temporary construction. A 2008 Architectural Record Vanguard, the architect may not be as well-known as some of his pavilion-designer predecessors – which include Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, Peter Zumthor, Alvaro Siza, and Toyo Ito – but, according to the curators, “Radic is a key protagonist of an amazing architectural explosion in Chile.”

Occupying a footprint of some 3,700 square feet, Radic’s semi-translucent, cylindrical structure was designed to resemble a shell, resting on large quarry stones. Its flexible, multi-purpose social space features a café. The Pavilion’s four-month tenure in the park launches next week as part of the London Festival of Architecture. RECORD spoke with Radic about the honor.....Continue Reading

> via Architectural Record