RIBA with Arper UK is delighted to invite all American Friends to a celebratory event for all 2017 RIBA National Award winners on Thursday 13 July at the Serpentine Galleries Pavilion, designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré.
Inspired by the tree that serves as a central meeting point for life in his home town of Gando, Francis Kéré has designed a responsive Pavilion that seeks to connect its visitors to nature – and each other. An expansive roof, supported by a central steel framework, mimics a tree’s canopy, allowing air to circulate freely while offering shelter against London rain and summer heat.
Kéré has positively embraced British climate in his design, creating a structure that engages with the ever-changing London weather in creative ways. The Pavilion has four separate entry points with an open air courtyard in the centre, where visitors can sit and relax during sunny days. In the case of rain, an oculus funnels any water that collects on the roof into a spectacular waterfall effect, before it is evacuated through a drainage system in the floor for later use in irrigating the park. Both the roof and wall system are made from wood. By day, they act as solar shading, creating pools of dappled shadows. By night, the walls become a source of illumination as small perforations twinkle with the movement and activity from inside.
The Serpentine Pavilion is also the platform for a new summer of Park Nights, the Serpentine’s annual series of experimental and interdisciplinary encounters. Practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, music, film, philosophy and technology have been commissioned to create new, site-specific work in response to Kéré’s structure, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance.
There will be a Champagne Taittinger reception with the fifty one award winners from around the UK and a speech from RIBA President, Jane Duncan.
With additional thanks to our exclusive awards technology partner, Microsoft, and to Cosentino who are unveiling the smart new RIBA Awards plaque which will appear on each award-winning building.
If you are able to attend, please do RSVP to Mica.Jones@RIBA.org.
