SelgasCano's Serpentine Pavilion opens in Los Angeles
The plastic-wrapped Serpentine Pavilion designed by Spanish firm SelgasCano has been rebuilt in Los Angeles as an events space for British co-working company Second Home.
Second Home, which provides studio and office space for creatives and entrepreneur, collaborated with the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) to move the colourful structure to city's La Brea Tar Pits.
The structure re-opened to the public as the Second Home Serpentine Pavilion on 28 June, four years after it was initially built at London's Kensington Gardens in 2015. It will be used to host free public talks, film screenings, and other events up until 24 November.
"The Pavilion will be a space for diverse communities and ideas to come together, and we can't wait to welcome everyone in," said Second Home co-founder Rohan Silva.
Second Home rebuilt the structure to celebrate the opening of its new Hollywood outpost – which is also designed by Spanish architects José Selgas and Lucía Cano – later this year.
Mirroring its initial installation as the 15th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, it comprises a series of metal arches wrapped in a colourful plastic that creates different segments and a variety of openings. Some form large arched corridors, while others are more discreet.
The pavilion's skin is made from ETFE – a kind of fluorine-based plastic that is transparent in some areas and opaque in others. When light hits the plastic it creates colourful "stained glass" markings across the pale rendered flooring inside.
ETFE has a high resistance to corrosion, and remains very strong in different temperature ranges. The team, however, has slightly adapted the construction so that the plastic attaches to the metal via threads to make it better suited to LA's hot climate.
Second Home and NHMLAC have confirmed a series of high-profile partners and speakers for its five-month events series. These include Universal Music, Netflix, World Wildlife Fund, David Lynch, Frieze LA, LACMA and the LA City Mayor's office.
Other activities include a weekend-long "culture marathon", which will be dedicated to non-profits and social impact organisations.
The programme mirrors the activities that Second Home plans to host in its Hollywood outpost, as part of its ambition to engage with LA's local community.
"We've fallen in love with Los Angeles – its beauty and chaos, its light and shadows, its contradictions, sub-cultures and people," said Second Home co-founder Sam Aldenton. "The Second Home Pavilion is a celebration of this: our love letter to LA."
SelgasCano's structure was initially installed at London's Kensington Gardens from 25 June to 15 October 2015. It marked the 15th edition of the annual pavilion commission by London's Serpentine Gallery, which allows architects without UK projects to build in the country for the first time.
Other past designers include Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, BIG and Diébédo Francis Kéré. Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has designed this summer's pavilion as a craggy structure that he likens to a "hill made out of rocks".
Many of the old structures have taken on new lives in new locations with BIG's pavilion rebuilt in Downtown Vancouver and Francis Kére's design relocated to Malaysia. The Second Home Serpentine Pavilion marks the first time that a Serpentine Pavilion has travelled to the US.
Second Home Hollywood, which is set to open this September, also marks the first US location of the British company.
Comprising bright yellow work pods interspersed with lush planting, it is the latest hub that architects Selgas and Cano have created for Second Home. Others include the first in east London, the second in Lisbon and an outpost in London's Holland Park.
Photography is by Iwan Baan.