Serpentine 2025 Pavilion A Capsule in Time, designed by Marina Tabassum, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA). Design render, interior view. Photo: © Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA). Courtesy Serpentine.
Serpentine is delighted to announce that Bangladeshi architect and educator Marina Tabassum and her firm, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), have been selected to design the 2025 Pavilion, titled A Capsule in Time. Marina Tabassum’s Pavilion will be unveiled to the public at Serpentine South on 6 June 2025 with Goldman Sachs supporting the annual project for the 11th consecutive year reports SURFACES REPORTER (SR)
This unique and ambitious commission, which began in 2000 with Dame Zaha Hadid, has presented the first UK structures by some of the most significant names and emerging talents in international architecture. Throughout its history, the Serpentine Pavilion has grown into a highly anticipated showcase for emerging talent. The Pavilion has evolved over the years as a participatory public and artistic platform for Serpentine’s experimental, interdisciplinary, community and education programmes.
Marina Tabassum Architects, which was founded following Tabassum's ten year partnership with URBANA in 2005, have completed architectural projects that are socially, politically and ecologically engaged. In addition to buildings sited in the city of Dhaka, its peripheries, and across Bangladesh, MTA’s practice extends to researching environmental degradation within Bangladesh, a country that is particularly vulnerable and facing the impacts of climate change. The studio also focuses on architecture’s role in addressing living conditions for marginalised individuals in the region with the aim to uplift the environmental and living conditions of the people they collaborate with as demonstrated by their celebrated Khudi Bari [Small House] (2020–ongoing). These modular structures were developed in 2020 for those living on the sand beds of the rivers Jamuna, Meghna and Teesta with the ability to be easily disassembled and moved when necessary.
Celebrated for her work that seeks to establish an architectural language that is contemporary while rooted and engaging with place, climate, context, culture and history, Tabassum’s design will resonate with Serpentine South and aims to prompt a dialogue between the permanent and the ephemeral nature of the commission.
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Serpentine 2025 Pavilion A Capsule in Time, designed by Marina Tabassum, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA). Design render, exterior view. Photo: © Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA). Courtesy Serpentine.
The 2025 Pavilion is elongated in the north-south direction and features a central court that aligns with Serpentine South’s bell tower. Inspired by the tradition of park-going and arched garden canopies that filter soft daylight through green foliage, the sculptural quality of the Pavilion is comprised of four wooden capsule forms with a translucent façade that diffuses and dapples light when infiltrating the space. Central to Tabassum’s design is a kinetic element where one of the capsule forms is able to move and connect, transforming the Pavilion into a new space.
Emphasising the sensory and spiritual possibilities of architecture through scale and the interplay of light and shadow, Tabassum’s design also draws on the history and architectural language of Shamiyana tents or awnings of South Asia. Similarly kinetic in their function, these structures are made up of an external fabric supported by bamboo poles and are commonly erected for outdoor gatherings and celebrations. The openness of Tabassum’s Pavilion welcomes the possibilities of unifying visitors through conversations and connections, live programmes and public convenings.
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Marina Tabassum. Photo: © Asif Salman
Marina Tabassum, Architect, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) said: “We are thrilled to be selected as the architect of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion. When conceiving our design, we reflected on the transient nature of the commission which appears to us as a capsule of memory and time. The relationship between time and architecture is intriguing: between permanence and impermanence, of birth, age and ruin; architecture aspires to outlive time. Architecture is a tool to live behind legacies, fulfilling the inherent human desire for continuity beyond life. In the Bengal delta, architecture is ephemeral as dwellings change locations with the rivers shifting courses. Architecture becomes memories of the lived spaces continued through tales. The archaic volume of a half capsule, generated by geometry and wrapped in light semi-transparent material will create a play of filtered light that will pierce through the structure as if under a Shamiyana at a Bengali wedding. The Serpentine Pavilion offers a unique platform under the summer sun to unite as people rich in diversity. The stage is set, the seats are placed. We envision various events and encounters taking place in this versatile space that unifies people through conversations and connections.”
Serpentine Pavilion 2025 designed by Marina Tabassum, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA). Design render, exterior view. Photo © Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) Courtesy: Serpentine
Bettina Korek, Chief Executive, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, said: “A Capsule in Time will honour connections with the Earth and celebrate the spirit of community. Built around a mature tree at the centre of the structure, Tabassum’s design will bring the park inside the Pavilion. Its kinetic dimension will also harken back to the levitating element of Rem Koolhaas & Cecil Balmond with Arup’s Serpentine Pavilion 2006. We are grateful to all of our loyal supporters who make this groundbreaking commission possible and look forward to announcing a full programme of live events and public programmes that will bring people together around Tabassum’s visionary, spiritual and social structure. This is a milestone year for the Serpentine Pavilion Commission as we celebrate 25 years since the inception of this prestigious programme.”
Throughout the Summer and until October, the Serpentine Pavilion 2025 will become a platform for Serpentine’s live and events programme. It will feature Park Nights, the interdisciplinary platform for live encounters in music, film, theatre, dance, literature, philosophy, fashion and technology. Each year’s commissions respond to the unique architecture of the Pavilion, inviting audiences to experience the activated space.
Tabassum’s Pavilion will kickstart the 25th year of this historic commission and continue Dame Zaha Hadid’s ethos of pushing the boundaries of architecture. In her words: ‘There should be no end to experimentation’, and Tabassum’s Pavilion will exemplify this credo. This year, Serpentine will host a programme of events to reflect on the commission, its history and its future.
This year's Pavilion selection was made by Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek; Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist; Director of Construction and Special Projects Julie Burnell; Exhibitions Curator Chris Bayley; Curator at Large, Architecture and Site-specific Projects Natalia Grabowska; and Assistant Exhibitions Curator Alexa Chow, together with advisors Sou Fujimoto and David Glover.
In June, Serpentine will publish a catalogue to accompany the Pavilion. Designed by Wolfe Hall, it will bring together new and insightful contributions from the fields of architecture, art and poetry. Generously illustrated in colour throughout, it also features an extensive conversation between Marina Tabassum and Serpentine’s Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist.
The Pavilion is supported by Goldman Sachs.