Exhibitions: Exotic pavilion lands in London

摘要

It is early summer in the pastoral setting of London's Kensington Gardens. I am one of a dense crowd at the opening of this year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, designed by the Portuguese power duo of Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura. It is a large, lumbering, but rather awesome timber beast of a building, the biggest of these annual commissions to date. It has been built quickly and without compromise, the hallmark of this remarkable series of temporary structures. But this is far from the sunny olive-belt home of its designers. Being late June in England, the sky darkens, lightning flickers, and soon the heavens open into an almighty downpour.