Serpentine pavilion 2024 review – Minsuk Cho’s multi-use

Kensington Gardens, London
The South Korean architect has incorporated a climbing structure, a cafe and a library into an unpredictable space meant for coming together

“Do a belly flop.” “Spread your arms like Jesus and then jump.” The photographers at the press view for the Serpentine pavilion are calling to me: I’ve ascended a rope climbing structure that is part of the design, and they fancy a shot of a moderately respectable gent flying on to a net underneath. If the role of snappers’ stuntman is an unusual addition to the job description of an architecture critic, that’s because Minsuk Cho, the South Korean architect of the 23rd edition of the pavilion, sited outside the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London, is the first one to include what he calls a Play Tower in the project.

There’s also a small Library of Unread Books assembled by the artist Heman Chong and the archivist Renée Stall, and a sound installation, by the musician and composer Jang Young-Gyu, in addition to a cafe and events space, which are more habitual parts of the pavilion brief. All these are arranged in a star-shaped configuration of triangles and trapezia around an empty central circle. The idea is to create a place “of choices, rather than a grand narrative”, as the architect puts it, where “you can improvise, you can pick and choose your experience”.