To Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, enclosing nature is often the best way to preserve it. In his design for this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, Zumthor takes nature under a protective wing to create a sanctuary as devoted to the greenery it houses as to its visitors. The nearly 4,333-square-foot structure incorporates 2,800 square feet of garden space surrounded by walkways, benches, and a timber frame covering all but the ceiling immediately above the garden. Left open to the sky, the structure stays true to his vision of a hortus conclusus, or a garden within a garden, a garden connected to nature. • Through Oct. 16. • serpentinegallery.org
For more details and images of the 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, visit ARCHITECT‘s Project Gallery.
