Summer Pavilion | Serpentine Gallery.

This year the Summer Pavilion is by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, a perfect combination. Allthough I think what really makes it very special is what it is made of - CORK, the trendiest product in the architecture and design world.

For more information, please click here.

The material softness is inviting to seat on and enjoy the sun.

Steps which become seats and seats which become tables - quite engaging, isn't it?

It's indeed all about the cork.

The cover could be a huge fish tank, don't you think?

Are these stool, tables or simply cork?

From 27 July to 12 August 2012 


Other Pavilions |
2010 by Jean Nouvel

Summer Pavilion 2011 by Peter Zumthor.

The annual series of Pavilions is the world's first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind.

2011 Pavilion was designed by world-renowned Swiss architect Peter Sumthor which includes a beautiful garden specially created by the influential Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.

From the 1st of July until the 16th October the Serpentine Gallery  was one of the most wanted spaces in London. I was able to see it on its very last day. Luckily the weather was inviting enough to explore what architecture has the best to offer - engagement. 

One of the multi entrances.

The Garden, a space within a space. 

A dark corridor around the pavilion's perimeter which created the idea of a labyrinth. 

The Pavilion is constructed of a lightweight timber frame wrapped with coated scrim to create a dark, cloistered effect. 

The materials are so fragile that, when leaning against the wall, one could feel the vibrations created by people talking, children running and walking around. 

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by Peter Zumthor from Serpentine Gallery on Vimeo.

Last year's Pavilion was design by the French architect Jean Nouvel. Click here to see the photos

Music To My Ears.

DESIGN IS DETAIL

Spatial design at Oslo Opera House, main entrance.

À La Rentrée!

Summer is indeed the best season in the year. We catch up with friends and family we get to see once a year, we have the beach to go to, look healthier, eat healthier, feel happier, find reasons to be outside all night long drinking Margaritas, though I always get to the point I miss to retreat. Maybe because I am lucky enough to enjoy all these pleasures since early May, I already started feeling the need to retreat (well, it's getting cool here in Lisbon, perhaps that's why).

Galleries and museums are part of my retreat. I love to visit art installations in the Autumn. They have a better fit. Everything feels right. It's as if I've been outside my reality for some time and art is getting me down to earth.

Looking forward to my Art Rentrée.

Reflection on the window above the Turbine Hall.

Light installation at Tate Modern (2007), one of my favorites.


Related articles:
The Serpentine Gallery (London)
Architectural Installations (London)
Design Museum (London)
MUDE - Fashion and Design (Lisbon)
The Barbican (London)
MoMA (Manhattan)
Other Art Forms and Spaces (Everywhere)

1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces @ The V&A. Sou Fujimoto.

This structure creates a space where notions of "inside and outside" and "nature and artificiality" are inverted and convergent. It explores the crucial duality and "in-betweenness" that defines traditional Japanese architecture. - V&A


Retreats and refuges harness and protect us, as they share the close and intimate scale of the user. They engender our most intimate imagination. They are the first other. This is why they are interesting. - Sou Fujimoto

Spell It Out, If You Must.

Windows are those little spaces where dreams start, specially when it comes to fashion.

Selfridges windows display is indeed one of the best in London. Always simple yet right straight to the point. The other day, quite late though, I passed by and couldn't resist to snap a few shots.

Get inspired. Start dreaming and spell it out loud. Sometimes is the only way to be heard.








Any special fashion wish?

1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces @ The V&A. Terunobu Fujimori.

Have a Classy WeekEnd.

Any ideas for the weekend?
I always find inspiration walk around classic (and classy) spaces absorbing the energy.

Dale Chihuly's Chandelier (right).

1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces @ The V&A. Rintala Eggertsson Architects.

By now you've probably realized I love the V&A and Spatial Installations. To get them both together is close to go to paradise, I guess.

For two months and an half the Museum has been hosting an amazing exhibition (today was the last day, I'm affraid). They’ve invited nineteen architects to submit a concept design for a building informed by ideas about retreat and refuge. Seven of these proposals were selected for construction at the Museum.

I’ve visited all of them, but there are two with which I relate quite a lot. The first, the one I’m posting today, was designed by Rintala Eggertsson Architects from Norway.

Situated by the National Art Library (and bookshop), this free-standing wooden tower re-evaluates the concept of the “archive” - REA


The walls are made of hundreds of books (about our environment) and the building materials come from the forests of Finland.


The tower is experienced via a spiral staircase and each floor includes a secluded reading chamber. The moment you sit down, you realized to tower shakes from top to bottom, which to me recalls the idea of how fragile Nature and manmade building can be.


V&A – What do you hope we will experience when we visit your building?
REA – The building is a reference to Nature (…) we hope the visitor will experience a balance joy – using body and mind to travel to unknown spaces.

Soon I’ll post my other favourite small building in this exhibition, The Beetle’s House by Terunobu Fujimori.

Other Spatial Installations you might like.

Space By Richard Serra.
Richard Wilson 20:50
Square The Block By Richard Wilson
Wallpaper* Chair Arch 2
Wallpaper*ChairArch.1
Inspired By Light Installations

(Apologies for photos colour quality, but flash option was even worst).

Richard Serra Wins Asturias Prize

As Richard Serra was yesterday announced the Winner of the 2010 Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts, I feel the urge to publish some of the photographs I’ve taken a few years ago in one of my visits to Serralves Museum of Contemporary Arts in Porto (Portugal) where you can find “Walking Is Measuring”.
Installed in 2000, it was the very first by the artist in the Iberia Peninsula.

Please click on the images to enlarge.











It is an honor to have such art work in one of the best contemporary art museums in Europe, not to mention of course it is in my beautiful country.

Richard Serra in London
Serralves Museum of Contemporary Arts

One of many articles online