Serpentine have announced 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. The Pavilion will be unveiled to the public at Serpentine South on 6th June.

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.

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.

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. […]”

Tim Leigh, Chief Creative Officer here at Stage One adds “We’re delighted to have been commissioned to manufacture and construct the scheme again this year. This will be our sixteenth Serpentine Pavilion and it’s a project we really look forward to.

There is always a great generosity of spirit and tremendous collaboration on these projects. Thank you to all of our friends and colleagues who will be alongside us on this journey, not least to the incredible architect Marina Tabassum and her dedicated team of Architects.”