AKT II were invited by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) to provide engineering expertise on the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion. As part of this work, I was involved in computational design+analysis on the pavilion, alongside a team of experienced Design Engineers at AKT II.

The cross-disciplinary design process between BIG, AKT II, FibreLine (the material manufacturers) and StageOne (the fabricators) was very interesting as it had to encompass design development, engineering analysis, material testing and fabrication in an extremely short time span.

The finished Pavilion is, I think, enormously successful – and more than that, it was very enjoyable collaborating with BIG to achieve their ambitious design. A great project to work on !

Design and Construction Process :

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Videos :

Video by the architects (BIG), and specialist fabricator (Fiberline Composites), who supplied the Pavilion’s primary GFRP material and supported us in material testing and development :

Aerial footage of the Pavilion, commissioned by AKT II :

Project Team :

Project Status: Built in 2016

Client: Serpentine Gallery
Designer: BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)

Structural Engineer (Superstructure): AKT II
Material Manufacturer: Fiberline Composites
Fabricator: Stage One

Project Role: Computational Designer at AKT II.

Publications :

· I co-authored a paper on the computational and engineering challenges of the Pavilion – “The 2016 Serpentine Pavilion: A Case Study in Large-Scale GFRP Structural Design & Assembly” – which was published in Fabricate: Rethinking Design & Construction (2017 – UCL Press).

· The paper was presented at the Fabricate 2017 conference, by my colleagues Edoardo Tibuzzi and James Kingman.

· Read the paper online (for free!) here, or buy a hardback version.

Awards :

· The Pavilion is a National Winner at the 2017 Civic Trust Awards, receiving an award in the Pro Tem category: presented to an “exemplar temporary building, structure or place”. More info here and here.

· And the Pavilion won an award at the 2017 Architizer A+ Awards – it won the ‘Popular Choice’ vote in the Pavilions category. Information here.

Further Information :

· Visit the Serpentine Gallery website here.

· Aaaaaand…. obligatory Twitter link.

· The Pavilion will move to Canada and be permanently installed in Vancouver – more information in this Dezeen article.

· The header image is by Alan Tansey, who has produced a fantastic set of photos, that capture all the different aspects of the Pavilion. I highly recommended seeing the rest of his Serpentine photos here.