The Serpentine has announced this year’s designer of their Pavilion, which is always a must-visit for Londoners. The commission has been given to Bangladeshi architect and educator Marina Tabassum, and her firm Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), with their 2025 Pavilion being titled A Capsule in Time.
Tabassum’s Pavilion will kickstart the 25th year of this historic commission, which began in 2000 with Dame Zaha Hadid. Hadid’s ethos of pushing the boundaries of architecture remains at the heart of the commission each year, and none more so than with Tabussum’s work.
It will be unveiled to the public at Serpentine South on 6 June 2025 with Goldman Sachs supporting the annual project for the 11th consecutive year, and looks like this will be a spectacular work.
Excitingly, it has a kinetic element where one of the capsule forms is able to move and connect to another, meaning the Pavilion can transform from event to event.
Emphasising the “sensory and spiritual possibilities of architecture through scale and the interplay of light and shadow”, Tabassum’s design draws on the history and architectural language of Shamiyana tents or the awnings of South Asia. These structures are made up of an external fabric supported by bamboo poles and are commonly erected for outdoor gatherings and celebrations. The openness of Tabassum’s Pavilion similarly encourages visitors to mingle and connect.
This ties into what the Pavilion is all about, becoming a place which serves as a public and artistic platform for Serpentine’s experimental, interdisciplinary, community and education programmes.
Marina Tabassum Architects are renowned for architectural projects that are socially, politically and ecologically engaged. In addition to buildings sited in the city of Dhaka, its peripheries, and across Bangladesh, MTA’s practice extends to researching environmental degradation within Bangladesh a country that is particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
The studio also focuses on architecture’s role in addressing living conditions for marginalised individuals in the region with the aim to uplift the environmental and living conditions of the people they collaborate with as demonstrated by their celebrated Khudi Bari [Small House] (2020–ongoing). These modular structures were developed in 2020 for those living on the sand beds of the rivers Jamuna, Meghna and Teesta with the ability to be easily disassembled and moved when necessary.
Celebrated for her work that seeks to establish an architectural language that is contemporary while rooted and engaging with place, climate, context, culture and history, Tabassum’s design will resonate with Serpentine South and provide a must-visit location for Londoners this spring and summer.
Marina Tabassum says, “We are thrilled to be selected as the architect of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion. When conceiving our design, we reflected on the transient nature of the commission which appears to us as a capsule of memory and time.
The relationship between time and architecture is intriguing: between permanence and impermanence, of birth, age and ruin; architecture aspires to outlive time. Architecture is a tool to live behind legacies, fulfilling the inherent human desire for continuity beyond life. In the Bengal delta, architecture is ephemeral as dwellings change locations with the rivers shifting courses.
Architecture becomes memories of the lived spaces continued through tales. The archaic volume of a half capsule, generated by geometry and wrapped in light semi-transparent material will create a play of filtered light that will pierce through the structure as if under a Shamiyana at a Bengali wedding.
The Serpentine Pavilion offers a unique platform under the summer sun to unite as people rich in diversity. The stage is set, the seats are placed. We envision various events and encounters taking place in this versatile space that unifies people through conversations and connections.”
Bettina Korek, Chief Executive, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, said: “A Capsule in Time will honour connections with the Earth and celebrate the spirit of community. Built around a mature tree at the centre of the structure, Tabassum’s design will bring the park inside the Pavilion.
Its kinetic dimension will also harken back to the levitating element of Rem Koolhaas & Cecil Balmond with Arup’s Serpentine Pavilion 2006. We are grateful to all of our loyal supporters who make this groundbreaking commission possible and look forward to announcing a full programme of live events and public programmes that will bring people together around Tabassum’s visionary, spiritual and social structure. This is a milestone year for the Serpentine Pavilion Commission as we celebrate 25 years since the inception of this prestigious programme.”
Throughout the Summer and until October, the Serpentine Pavilion 2025 will become a platform for Serpentine’s live and events programme. It will feature Park Nights, the interdisciplinary platform for live encounters in music, film, theatre, dance, literature, philosophy, fashion and technology. Each year’s commissions respond to the unique architecture of the Pavilion, inviting audiences to experience the activated space.
