Peter Zumthor unveils his Serpentine Pavilion

Peter Zumthor is the architect most commonly referred to by other architects quite simply as ‘God’. This is how Alain de Botton described his collaborator on the Living Architecture project, at a recent lecture. As the appointed architect of this year’s Serpentine summer pavilion, the widely revered Zumthor has unveiled his Garden of Eden (open to the public from 1 July - 18 October 2011). Having teamed up with horticulturalist and trailblazer of the New Perennial planting movement, Piet Oudolf, Zumthor has designed a hortus conclusus, a meditative interior space for park dwellers.

A black box nestled amongst the lush tree line of Kensington Gardens, the pavilion staunchly looks inwards onto another world. Enclosed gardens have long intrigued Zumthor, who is drawn to the idea of a sanctuary within vast spaces. Inspired by his experience of fenced vegetable gardens and the flowers on Alpine farms, Zumthor’s pavilion interior invites us to experience the natural architecture of plants. Gardens, in Zumthor's view, belong to architecture as much as agriculture. Zumthor explains his quest has been to design a space '...where you are not looking at nature but nature is looking at you.' 

The pavilion construction consists of a lightweight timber frame, clad with a black idenden scrim, an effect reminiscent of concrete structures Zumthor favours in his homeland of Switzerland. Interior walls line the pavilion with several pathways, each leading to the central garden.

As with many of Zumthor's buildings the facade is monolithic, strictly mediating the boundary between the outside world and the environment he creates within.  Zumthor’s desire for architecture to evoke contemplation and serenity is substantially in keeping with his previous projects, namely the Thermal Baths at Vals in Switzerland and the Bruder Klaus Chapel in Mechernich, Germany. In both Zumthor manages to deftly manipulate light and scale to instil an evocative, sensory experience.

In contrast to Jean Nouvel's 2010 red show-stopper pavilion, which practically urged visitors to put on a nocturnal park-discotheque and sip raspberry infused cocktails, Zumthor is asking us to pause and smell the roses.

Rachel Borchard is a member of Black Country Atelier