London’s 2026 Serpentine Pavilion will be designed by the Mexican architecture studio Lanza Atelier, founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo. Titled a serpentine, it will open to the public on 6 June.
Founded in 2015, Lanza Atelier is a Mexico City-based studio that aims to ‘contribute to the beauty of the world’. Its practice emphasises hands-on design methods, such as drawing and model-making, to help actively think through material, form and structure. The Architectural League of New York awarded the studio with the Young Architects Prize in 2017 and the Emerging Voices Award in 2023.
Lanza Atelier’s design for the 2026 Pavilion is inspired by the English architecture feature known as a serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall. Made primarily of brick, a serpentine will include several curvilinear walls and a translucent roof resting on columns, responding to the environing trees in Kensington Gardens.
‘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,’ said Lanza Atelier in a statement.
‘From this idea emerges a pavilion built of simple clay brick, foregrounding vernacular craft and the elemental capacity of architecture to bring people together. The 2026 Pavilion proposes built forms that are permeable, shaped and held by a gentle geometry, and continually responsive to those who move through it.’
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