Shedding light on the Serpentine Pavilion

6 July 2010 | By Lauren Vanderkar

This year marks the tenth pavilion commission in the Serpentine Gallery’s architectural series. Behind the design of this latest contribution, rendered in a vivid red, is world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. His vision was to create a stark contrast between the red materials used in the structure and the green of the surrounding gardens. “I wanted to convey energy and optimism,” said Nouvel. “I love play, and there’s a lot for people to have fun with here.”

Nouvel has used lightweight materials to reflect, refract and diffuse the sun’s light. Glass, polycarbonate and fabric - all in a red tint - transform the light into what Nouvel described as “a symphony of reds”.

At night, the pavilion is lit by red luminaires in a subtle lighting concept that remains sensitive to the natural surroundings. “I don’t like a lot of light at night-time,” explained Nouvel. “It’s a very sensitive approach, with a few projectors giving of a soft light and small coloured lanterns on each table.”

For the last nine years, Arup has collaborated with the architect on designing the Serpentine Pavilion. “It’s an interesting job,” remarks Arup’s Jeff Shaw. “We work with an outdoor space that is essentially treated as indoor in its use; the whole thing is constructed in 12 weeks; and we aren’t given the freedom to choose fittings. Everything we use has to be flexible so that we can adjust it as we go along.”

Shaw worked alongside Jean Nouvel on the electric lighting concept for this year’s pavilion using sponsor WE-EF’s fittings. “Right away we knew we wanted it to be subtle,” he says. They ruled out lighting the screen wall, deciding instead to keep the lighting purely functional. “A soft glow at night was quite enough.”

“Nothing was ever laid out on paper - we modified and adjusted the filters and lenses to achieve certain effects.”

When it came to coloured filters, red was an obvious choice while interjections of green light mirrors what Nouvel created with the architecture. “We balanced it out with white light to make sure it wasn’t like a disco inside,” adds Shaw.

There’s a range of different light effects, with spots and projectors accenting the games tables. But the light levels are never allowed to get too high. “It’s an ongoing project,” explains Shaw. “Nothing was ever laid out on paper - we modified and adjusted the filters and lenses to achieve certain effects. As the nights draw in we’ll readjust. We treat it a bit like a gallery space, and keep it flexible to whatever our aim is at the time.”

Exterior lighting manufacturer WE-EF Lighting has supplied the light fittings for the Serpentine Pavilions. A main sponsor behind this year’s architectural feat, WE-EF provided luminaries in RAL3020 (traffic red) to blend in with Nouvel’s very particular vision. The products used were 65W FLC121 lamps from WE-EF’s symmetrical lighting range, controlled by electrical transformer.

As a family of luminaires, various reflectors can be employed under a single housing to achieve different effects. Three different beam types were used to create varying effects across the pavilion: 20 broad beam; 11 medium beam; and five narrow beam. The flexibility this affords was of major benefit to the project, parallelling Nouvel’s treatment of daylight by allowing textured lighting at night.

Mike Hill, managing director of WE-EF Lighting, pointed out a further advantage to the FLC121 lamps: “There’s room to use two accessories internally, making the luminaire more of a lighting tool.” A number of linear lenses were supplied to elongate the beam, providing a narrow spot light directly on to tables at the centre of the pavilion. Flood lenses altered the light on the circular tables near the back, while the coloured filters added yet another texture to the overall concept.

“What you’ve got are a series of lamps that are physically small in size, but can hold accessories that the specialists at Arup could use to create a whole range of effects,” explained Hill

The pavilion is constructed in just three months with no budget, the money instead coming from sponsorship. Admission is free, and it will be open to the public from 10 July until 17 October.