Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo of Lanza Atelier. Photo © Pia Riverola

In 2000, Zaha Hadid was named designer of the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion and to mark the 25-year anniversary of that commission, the Aric Chen–led Zaha Hadid Foundation has teamed with Serpentine to present special programming that explores Hadid’s “groundbreaking contributions to the field while connecting new and wider audiences with innovative architectural conversations,” according to a press statement.  This celebration of the late Iraqi-British architect’s life and work will be held at Serpentine South in conjunction with a full calendar of free cultural programming—music, dance, poetry readings, and more—staged at and around the pavilion itself. “Hadid’s spirit of innovation has set the tone for what has since become one of the world’s most influential architectural commissions,” adds the gallery. “This approach continues to shape not only the Pavilion series, but also Serpentine’s wider program of exhibitions and live events.”

Remarking on their selection for this milestone year for the coveted commission, Lanza Atelier founders Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo note: “We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to share our work with a wider public and to contribute to the Pavilion’s ongoing legacy of spatial experimentation and collective encounter.” 

Exterior rendering of 2026 Serpentine Pavilion. Image © Lanza Atelier, courtesy Serpentine

As detailed by Serpentine, Lanza Atelier’s design, to be realized in brick, takes inspiration from an English architecture feature known as a serpentine, or crinkle-crankle, wall that will form one side of the pavilion. “Its curvilinear form provides stability through lateral support, meaning the one-brick-wide serpentine wall requires fewer bricks than a straight wall,” explains a press statement. “The eponymous feature also subtly nods to the nearby Serpentine lake, named for its gentle curvature, evoking the form of a serpent.” 

A second wall will “work in harmony with the tree canopy without disrupting it, while the main structure is positioned on the northern side of the site. A translucent roof rests lightly on brick columns evoking a grove of trees. The pavilion’s configuration allows light and air to permeate the space, 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,” say Abascal and Arienzo of their design for the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion. 

Interior rendering of 2026 Serpentine Pavilion. Image © Lanza Atelier, courtesy Serpentine

 Established in 2015, Lanza Atelier has been recognized with several accolades during its relatively young existence. These include nominations for the 2016 Ibero-American Architecture Biennial Award and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for emerging architects (MCHAP.emerge) in 2016 and 2022 as well as a Young Architects Prize (2017) and an Emerging Voices Award (2023) from the Architectural League of New York. Following Lanza Atelier’s first solo show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 2018, the studio has continued to exhibit at a range of international venues including at the 12th São Paulo Architecture Biennale (2019), the Lisbon Triennale (2019), the Concéntrico Festival in Spain (2021), and the 2023 Latin American Architecture Biennial. In addition to the June debut of the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion, upcoming projects include a solo exhibition of the studio’s furniture designs at AGO Projects in Mexico City (opening February 3) well as the design of the 61st Venice Art Biennale’s Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo.