Wednesday 11 August 2010

Jean Nouvel Pavilion - Serpentine Gallery

The Jean Nouvel Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery this Summer has finally got it right.

It's not in the same league architecturally as the whimsical Olaofur Eliasson & Kjeti Thorsen  of 2007 nor the Oscar Niemeyer study in beauty (2003) the Toyo Ito masterpiece (2002) or last years enchanting SANAA. However it has at last realised the potential of a public space for a summer in London.

For years the public have been seemingly ignored by the starchitects need for flamboyance. Eliasson & Thorson for example gave us a stunning place to visit, one of my favourite ever interiors and nowhere to sit and cosy up.

Nouvel has given us what we wanted all along, a great place to ponder, meet friends, laugh flirt or read. The cafe actually has a rather large buzz about it, amazing considering the coffee is awful. I sat and watched as people played chess, rocked on hammocks and struggled with the not so simple game of ping pong. Maybe we just needed a Frenchmen to show London what parks are for.