Serpentine has announced LANZA atelier as the designer of the Serpentine Pavilion 2026, marking the 25th edition of the annual commission. Founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, the Mexico City–based studio was selected to realise the Pavilion titled a serpentine, which will open to the public at Serpentine South on 6 June 2026. As part of the anniversary programme, Serpentine will collaborate with the Zaha Hadid Foundation, recognising Hadid's role as architect of the inaugural Pavilion in 2000 and reaffirming the Pavilion's legacy as a platform for architectural experimentation.
Founded in 2015, LANZA atelier operates at the intersection of architecture, craft, and spatial experimentation. The studio's work is rooted in everyday conditions and informal practices, with a focus on material intelligence, construction methods, and collective experience. Working across residential, public, and furniture-scale projects, the practice employs hands-on processes such as drawing and model-making as active design tools.
LANZA atelier's proposal centres on the architectural figure of the serpentine or crinkle wall, drawing from English garden traditions and historical construction techniques. The design references the crankle wall, a one-brick-wide structure stabilised through alternating curves, originally developed for material efficiency and lateral strength. This geometry also subtly echoes the nearby Serpentine Lake, establishing a conceptual and spatial dialogue with the site. The Pavilion is organised through a series of gently curved brick walls that shape movement and rhythm, alternately revealing and enclosing space, while framing moments of proximity, pause, and orientation within the garden setting.
Related Article
A Look at the Last 8 Editions of the Serpentine PavilionBrick has been selected as the Pavilion's primary material, establishing continuity with the Serpentine South Gallery's historic brick façade and reinforcing the Pavilion's relationship to its context. The structure is composed of a rhythmic repetition of brick columns that transition from opaque to permeable, allowing light and air to pass through. A translucent roof rests lightly on these columns, evoking the spatial quality of a grove of trees. Positioned on the northern side of the site, the Pavilion responds to the surrounding landscape, engaging with the existing tree canopy while softening the boundary between enclosure and openness.
...Set within a garden, an evocation of the natural world, the project takes the form of a serpentine wall, conceived as a device that both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation, and pause. Inspired by the figure of the serpent as a generative and protective force, we draw a parallel with England's winding fruit walls, which are structures that temper climate, create shelter, and enable growth. From this idea emerges a pavilion built of simple clay brick, foregrounding vernacular craft and the elemental capacity of architecture to bring people togeth er. The 2026 Pavilion proposes built forms that are permeable, shaped and held by a gentle geometry, and continually responsive to those who move through it. - LANZA atelier
The Pavilion selection was made by a committee including Bettina Korek, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julie Burnell, Chris Bayley, Tamsin Hong, and Liz Stumpf, with Sou Fujimoto serving as advisor. To accompany the Pavilion, Serpentine will publish LANZA atelier's first monograph, designed by Estudio Herrera. The publication will include new contributions from architecture, art, and poetry, alongside an extended conversation between the architects and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and an essay by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
LANZA atelier has previously been recognised with awards, including the Architectural League of New York's Emerging Voices Award in 2023 and the Young Architects Prize in 2017. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including at SFMOMA, the São Paulo Architecture Biennale, the Lisbon Triennale, and the Latin American Architecture Biennial. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition of furniture designs in Mexico City and the design of the Republic of Kosovo Pavilion at the 61st Venice Art Biennale curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
