Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by Peter Zumthor

The entrance to the mysterious pavilion.

The surrounding corridor.

First glimpse of the contemplative garden and courtyard.

This year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion at Kensington Gardens, London has been designed by Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor with Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. At first impression, the lightweight black timber structure seems unassuming. However, as you walk into the perimeter of the building, a surrounding corridor, you get a glimpse of a 'secret' contemplative garden.
"The concept", says Zumthor, "is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The building acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light. Through blackness and shadow one enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. This experience will be intense and memorable, as will the materials themselves – full of memory and time." - The Guardian.
The Pavilion is open from July through to October 2011.
Photographs by Julian Lanoo via Dezeen.