London | Serpentine Summer House 2016 by Kunlé Adeyemi

Serpentine Summer House 2016 designed by Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ); (10 June – 9 October); Photo © Iwan Baan

London | Serpentine Summer House 2016 by Kunlé Adeyemi

The little Summer House designed by Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi in Kensington Gardens, London, is a joyful play around the concept of architecture and its basic components.

One of the four projects part of the site-specific built architecture program inaugurated this year by the Serpentine Galleries, the design by Adeyemi is based on the historic Queen Caroline’s Temple designed by William Kent in 1734.

Queen Caroline’s Temple, Kensington Gardens, London; Photo by Garry Knight via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Serpentine Summer House 2016; Design renders © NLÉ 

The neoclassical Temple was ideally de-constructed by Adayemi and then reassembled as a celebration of the elements of architecture; a free composition of a room, a portal, and a window that retains the proportions, style, and materials of the original, yet translated into a contemporary architectural alphabet.

Serpentine Summer House 2016 designed by Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ); Photos © Iwan Baan

Kunlé Adeyemi (b. 1976), founder of Amsterdam and Lagos-based practice NLÉ and a collaborator of Rem Koolhaas at OMA for almost a decade, is widely recognized for his notable works in Africa and inventive architectures, such as the recently-completed Makoko Floating School in Lagos. 

NLÉ: Makoko Floating School, Lagos, Nigeria, 2012; Image by NLÉ

Kunlé Adeyemi; Portrait © Reze Bonna