In early 2020, Sumayya Vally and Counterspace brought us the designs for their Serpentine Pavilion. It would be 18 months later that their vision came to fruition. The pavilion is always a challenge to build and this edition was no different.

The scheme used reclaimed steel to reduce the environmental impact of the pavilion. It was one of the more substantial pavilions we’ve made too, with much of the finishing relying on micro-cement.

The pavilion design was inspired by the buildings and neighbourhoods of London. That meant that many elements of the build were unique. In turn, that made it a monumental challenge for our CAD teams to process all of the parts needed to complete the structure.

Working at scale and pace, it was essential that everything would fit together on site.

But our CAD team came up trumps again. That meant installation could progress with as few snags as possible. Which is important when the installation window is just seven weeks.

The end result, was a cohesive realisation of Sumayya’s designs and the longest gestation period of all of the Serpentine Pavilions.