Christine Kim – Looking Outwards – 06

exterior view of the building

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in 2002 was designed by Toyo Ito, Cecil Balmond, and Arup. This pavilion was designed with randomly intersecting lines along the walls which created many different shapes of triangles and trapezoids. This exterior/interior wall design was actually derived from an algorithm of a cube that expanded as it rotated. I think this computational art allows people to appreciate the building as well as the way of design using an algorithm. Along with this algorithmic design, the transparency and translucency of the wall make it seem like the shapes of the walls are in infinitely repeated motion. This algorithm was developed by Balmond, who participated in this project as the artist and structural engineer. Although this project’s budget constraints didn’t allow the highest quality finish, the strength of the design made sure that it caught people’s eyes. I could not find what kind of algorithm Balmond used, but I suppose the algorithm made many different lines in a cube to reach these shapes of the building.

interior sky view of the shapes

interior view of the building

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion