Experimentation in architecture: Pavilion design

Abstract

Since the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the field of exhibition design has become an inevitable impact on both architectural practice and discourse. Any exhibition design offers ‘new’ architectural problem-solving techniques, and this experimental process generates a direction to apply new architectural methods, new materials, and new concepts. This process leads to searching, experiencing, and opening up new possibilities without the constraints of the established rules. Thus, architects can experience what the future holds for spatial design. Architectural design enriches through experimenting with new approaches and new materials. This paper suggests that architectural experimentation can be provided in terms of Serpentine Gallery Pavilions as well as challenging the architect’s role in re-establishing the conventional architectural thought. Thus, the architect is searching for new architectural possibilities and exploring the limitations of interpretation. Pavilion design can be considered as an architectural phenomenon in the light of this experiment to expose something ‘new’ and also in an innovative manner. Not only does the pavilion layout influence on its setting, but it also has the ability to redefine contemporary architecture, discourse, and practice. The pavilion’s very limited nature requires the architect to design a clear-cut expression, develop a simple concept, and to find different methodologies or/and solutions for the ‘temporality’ of architecture. This experimentation not only has an impact on architectural practice and discourse but also leads to comment on and critique new possibilities in the field of architecture. Architects gain the freedom to experience the ‘new’ architecture through this experimental process.