The Mexican office LANZA atelier, founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo in Mexico City, has been selected to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2026, reaffirming the presence of a leading Latin American practice on the international architectural stage through one of the most coveted and closely watched commissions in contemporary architecture.
LANZA atelier’s proposal, titled a serpentine, takes shape as a conceptual interpretation of the British serpentine wall—the well-known “crinkle-crankle wall” typical of English gardens—defined by a brick masonry that unfolds in continuous curves. This oscillating geometry provides structural stability, allowing the wall to be built with a single brick thickness rather than a straight configuration.
Beyond its reference to local construction traditions, this formal choice establishes a direct dialogue with the landscape of Kensington Gardens, where the gentle undulation of the wall mirrors the sinuous profile of the nearby Serpentine Lake.
Within the pavilion’s spatial composition, a second curved wall wraps around the existing vegetation, carefully engaging the tree canopy without compromising its integrity. A translucent roof rests lightly on a sequence of brick columns that evoke a stylized grove of trees: light filters from above and air circulates freely, generating a permeable atmosphere in which the boundary between enclosure and openness becomes increasingly blurred.
LANZA atelier’s project for the Serpentine Pavilion 2026 is not merely a formal exercise, but a reflection on materiality, on the construction of limits, and on architecture’s capacity to choreograph spaces of passage and encounter. Brick—selected not only for its historical resonance within English architectural contexts but also for its tactile and sensory qualities—acts as a unifying element between surface and structure, grounding the pavilion in an intense and consciously crafted material language.
Within the framework of the 25th anniversary of the Serpentine Pavilion programme, the work of LANZA atelier stands as a meaningful contribution to the long tradition of spatial experimentation promoted by the Serpentine Galleries, proposing a temporary architecture conceived as a place for pause, contemplation, and cultural activation.
