Serpentine Pavilion is completed using slate

This year's Serpentine Pavilion is described by its designer as a "hill made out of rocks".

Japanese designer Junya Ishigami has completed this year's Serpentine Pavilion, a structure he describes as a "hill made out of rocks". 

2019's version of the Serpentine Pavilion, located outside the Serpentine Gallery in London's Kensington Gardens, comprises a rugged, rocky canopy made out of 61 tonnes of Cumbrian slate.

The large mound of slate is held up by a slender steel structure, supported by a grid of 106 pin-ended columns that are arranged randomly to create a 'forest'.

Ishigami is the fourth Japanese designer to design a Serpentine Pavilion. Even more so than his predecessors, who include Toyo Ito, SANNA and Sou Fujimoto, a central focus of his work is making architecture that both celebrates and mimics the forms of the natural world. 

His aim was to to create a building that takes the common architectural feature of the slate roof and show how it can be made to look like something found in the wild.

The pavilion is roughly triangular in plan. The corners extend down to touch the concrete ground surface below, which in turn slopes upwards to meet them. Inside, it is furnished with tables and stools also designed by Ishigami, to resemble lily pads.

Ishigami is the 19th designer to accept the invitation to design a temporary pavilion. His Serpentine Pavilion is open to the public from 21 June to 6 October. It will host a new programme of events through the summer before being sold and moved to a new home.

Click here to view images of the project.