In Tribute to Trees, This Year’s Serpentine Pavilion Helps Irrigate London’s Hyde Park
West African architect Diébédo Francis Kéré’s tree-inspired pavilion will open to the public this Friday, as the latest presentation of the Serpentine Gallery’s design commission. Kéré, whose architectural firm is based in Berlin, is the first African architect selected for the project, now in its 17th year. Kéré was chosen in February by the Serpentine’s artistic director Hans-Ulrich Obrist, CEO Yana Peel, and starchitect advisers David Adjaye and Richard Rogers. The project was initiated in 2000 under then director Julia Peyton-Jones, as a platform for international architects and designers to create a temporary structure for public interaction and use. Past participants have included Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Olafur Eliasson, and Daniel Libeskind.