Strange Pavillions

Since I arrived a little early for my Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall tonight I decided to go for a little wander around Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens (I am never quite sure where one ends and the other begins). The weather had started to turn a little brighter - a little more like a proper summer evening than of late - and I wanted to see what this year's summer pavillion at the Serpentine Gallery was like.

I was not much taken by last year's bloated baloon offering by Rem Koolhaas, although it certainly had scale and impact - it's huge white helium-filled dome visible from some distance towering over the classical gallery like some billious eruption. I thought it rather vulgar.

This year, the pavillion has been designed by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, and is a rather more intruiging affair. Actually, it is not quite finished yet, and they still appear to be putting finishing touches to the interior, but the exterior appears to be complete. It is a helical structure of dark wood with an almost continuous open gap (instead of a wall) curving around the edge and up to the inclined conical roof. Between the upper and lower edges of the open gap there are skeins of thin white thread strung with a slight twist, which gives an interesting visual effect as you walk around the outside. The feel is almost like a place of worship - the building is substantially open, but it is difficult to make out what is happening inside. I'll be curious to take another look when it is finally open to the public.

As for tonight's Prom, that was another strange piece of architecture, although Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle is bigger, darker and altogther more disturbing the the Serpentine pavillions. But Bartok's psychological architecture uses light, colour and sound in a way which I am sure Olafur Eliasson would appreciate (Eliasson is best known in the UK for his hugely popular "Weather Project" installation at the Tate Modern in 2003, which involved a giant monochrome sodium lamp "sun" and an apparent doubling of the height of the turbine hall by mirroring the entire ceiling).