The 2026 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Mexico City-based practice Lanza Atelier, opens to the public on 6 June.
Titled A Serpentine, the pavilion is the twenty-fifth commission in the Serpentine’s annual pavilion series. The design draws inspiration from a serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall, a one-brick-thick undulating wall commonly constructed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as an economical solution to the brick tax in place at the time.
The pavilion’s primary material is brick, comprising walls, flooring and columns. The columns support a translucent roof with open sections that admit light and air through the interior.
Lanza Atelier said the project was conceived as “a device that both reveals and withholds,” with the arrangement of bricks shifting from solid to permeable, enabling views through the wall.
“Inspired by the figure of the serpent as a generative and protective force, we draw a parallel with England’s winding fruit walls, which are structures that temper climate, create shelter and enable growth. From this idea emerges a pavilion built of simple clay brick, foregrounding vernacular craft and the elemental capacity of architecture to bring people together.”
Founded in 2015 by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, Lanza Atelier’s portfolio spans architecture, furniture, exhibition and industrial design. This multidisciplinary approach extends to the pavilion’s chairs and stools, made from sapele hardwood and also designed by the studio.
Serpentine’s artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist said Lanza Atelier’s architecture “always involves a deep engagement with the local context, materials and lived experience.”
“Their spaces invite people to imagine a more connected, compassionate and creative future.”
Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek said each Serpentine commission is an invitation to test ambitious ideas in one of the world’s great public spaces. “With Lanza Atelier, we deepen our cultural exchange with Mexico and reaffirm what the Pavilion has always been: a place of connection.”
Lanza Atelier’s pavilion follows Bangladeshi architect and educator Marina Tabassum’s 2025 Serpentine Pavilion titled A Capsule in Time.
The pavilion opens to the public at London’s Serpentine South Gallery on 6 June.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
