London gallery Serpentine has announced that architect Marina Tabassum and her Dhaka, Bangladesh-based firm, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), will design the 2025 Serpentine Pavilion. The installation, titled A Capsule in Time, will open to the public on June 6 and marks a quarter-century of architectural innovation since Zaha Hadid’s inaugural pavilion in 2000.
An exterior view of a design render of the Serpentine Pavilion 2025 designed by Marina Tabassum, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA).
The Serpentine Pavilion is a prestigious annual architectural commission that takes place in Kensington Gardens at Serpentine South, one of the two buildings that makes up the gallery’s London footprint. It’s a unique temporary structure that’s unveiled each summer and remains open to the public through October. Over its 25 year history, it has showcased both starchitects and emerging talents alike, including people like Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Bjarke Ingels, Diébédo Francis Kéré, and Frida Escobedo, who was later tapped to lead the expansion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
Tabassum is a fitting addition to this all-star roster. Her practice is known for socially-conscious and environmentally responsible work, including the celebrated Khudi Bari project which developed modular homes for communities living on Bangladesh’s riverbanks. Recently named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024, she represents a new generation of architects addressing climate change and social inequality through design.
A portrait of architect Marina Tabassum.
Her firm’s 2025 pavilion will feature four arched timber canopies with a central court aligning with Serpentine’s bell tower. One of these canopies will be reconfigurable, allowing it to move and completely transform the space. At the structure’s heart stands a mature tree, which will “bring the park inside the pavilion,” according to a press release.
A Capsule in Time celebrates the temporary nature of the project. “When conceiving our design, we reflected on the transient nature of the commission which appears to us as a capsule of memory and time,” Tabassum notes. “The relationship between time and architecture is intriguing: between permanence and impermanence, of birth, age and ruin, architecture aspires to outlive time.”
A road view of a design render of the Serpentine Pavilion 2025 designed by Marina Tabassum.
The design is inspired by the vernacular architecture of the Bengal delta, where buildings must adapt to shifting river courses, and the traditional Shamiyana tents used in South Asian celebrations.
“The archaic volume of a half capsule, generated by geometry and wrapped in light semi-transparent material will create a play of filtered light that will pierce through the structure as if under a Shamiyana at a Bengali wedding,” Tabassum notes.
Julia Cancilla is the engagement editor (and resident witch) at ELLE Decor, where she manages the brand’s social media presence and covers trends, lifestyle, and culture in the design world. Julia built her background at Inked magazine, where she grew their social media audiences by two million, conducted interviews with A-list celebrities, and penned feature articles focusing on pop culture, art and lifestyle. Over her five years of digital media experience, Julia has written about numerous topics, from fashion to astrology.
