Since 2000, Serpentine has commissioned international and emerging architects to create their first structure in the United Kingdom. The program propels the careers of architects who are extending the boundaries of design and brings their innovative work to new audiences In summer of 2025, Serpentine presents its 25th Anniversary Pavilion, designed by Bangladeshi architect and educator, Marina Tabassum. Since founding the award-winning Dhaka-based practice Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), Tabassum has completed a distinctive body of work that is socially, politically and ecologically engaged. Inspired by arched garden canopies that filter soft daylight through green foliage, the 2025 Pavilion is comprised of four wooden capsule forms with translucent façades that diffuse light. Central to Tabassum’s design is a kinetic element—one of the capsule forms moves and connects, transforming the Pavilion into a new space. Emphasizing the sensory and spiritual possibilities of architecture through scale and the interplay of light and shadow, Tabassum’s design also draws on the history and architectural references of Shamiyana tents or awnings of South Asia. Similarly kinetic and transitory in their function, these structures are made of fabric supported by bamboo poles and are commonly erected for outdoor gatherings and celebrations. The openness of Tabassum’s Pavilion welcomes the possibilities of unifying visitors with a dynamic space for live performances, events, and family and community activity.

Marina Tabassum is an architect and educator. She graduated in 1995 from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Prior to founding Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) in 2005, Tabassum was a founding partner of URBANA. Tabassum is a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She held the Norman Foster Chair at Yale University in 2023 and has taught at universities including the Harvard University Graduate School of Design; the University of Toronto; and BRAC University, Bangladesh. She served as academic director at the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements between 2015 and 2021. In 2024, Tabassum was in Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People.” She is the founding chairperson of the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (F.A.C.E), a nonprofit organization that works with communities to build mobile modular housing in geographically and climatically challenged locations in Bangladesh.

Chris Bayley is the project curator for the Serpentine Pavilion 2025. Bayley is curator, exhibitions at the Serpentine, London, where he has worked on exhibitions of Barbara Chase-Riboud (2022), Tomás Saraceno (2023), and Judy Chicago (2024). Previously he was assistant curator at Barbican in London where he worked on Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics (2022); Shilpa Gupta: Sun at Night (2021); Claudia Andujar: The Yanomami Struggle (2021); Masculinities: Liberation through Photography (2020); Yto Barrada: Agadir; and Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-Garde (both 2018), authoring and editing publications for many of these projects.

Bettina Korek is chief executive of Serpentine. Prior to arriving in London in 2020, she has two decades of experience as an arts leader in her hometown of Los Angeles, most recently as founding executive director of Frieze Los Angeles. In 2006, she founded ForYourArt, an organisation that has expanded the place of art in everyday life in Southern California. ForYourArt has produced projects in collaboration with museums, brands and municipal governments, presenting work by hundreds of artists. She served on the Los Angeles County Arts Commission from 2011–20 and was the organisation’s President in 2016–17.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is artistic director of the Serpentine in London, and senior advisor at LUMA Arles. Prior to this, he was the curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show “World Soup” (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 350 shows. Obrist’s publications include Ways of Curating (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014); The Age of Earthquakes (Blue Rider Press, 2015); Lives of the Artists, Lives of Architects (Penguin Books, 2016); The Extreme Self: Age of You (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2021); 140 Ideas for Planet Earth (Penguin, 2021); Edouard Glissant: Archipelago (Isolarii Press, 2021); James Lovelock: Ever Gaia (Isolarii, 2023); Remember to Dream (HENI Publishing, 2023); and Une vie in Progress (Seuil Editions and Fondation Cartier, 2023).

Julie Burnell is head of construction and buildings at the Serpentine, where she has worked since 2004. During that time, she has overseen the development and construction of the annual Serpentine Pavilion commission, working closely with international architects, engineers and construction teams to deliver a new building within a six-month time frame. She also worked with Zaha Hadid Architects as the project leader on the renovation and extension of the Serpentine North Gallery, which opened to the public in 2013.

Championing new ideas in contemporary art since 1970, Serpentine presents pioneering exhibitions, architecture and public programs, showcasing work from emerging practitioners to the most internationally recognized creatives of our time. Uniquely situated across two sites in Kensington Gardens, London, Serpentine is free and open to all, year-round. Serpentine’s vision is to build new connections between art and society, underpinned by a mission to support the development of art and ideas for a changing world.