Philanthropy Manager

FAD NEWS: Rolex joins the Serpentine Pavilion as Official Timepiece. Serpentine has announced a new long-term partnership with Rolex, naming the Swiss watchmaker Official Timepiece of the Serpentine Pavilion from 2026 onwards. The collaboration begins with support for this year's Pavilion, designed by LANZA atelier, connecting one of the world's most closely watched architectural commissions with a brand whose cultural activities increasingly extend beyond watchmaking. For more than two decades the Serpentine Pavilion has become one of the most anticipated annual commissions in architecture, inviting emerging and established architects to create ambitious temporary structures in London. Over time, the Pavilion has evolved beyond architecture itself, becoming a site for performances, conversations, education initiatives and broader public engagement. The new relationship positions Rolex alongside a programme that has consistently pushed architectural experimentation into the public realm. It also builds on the brand's wider cultural activity through its Perpetual Arts Initiative, which supports artists and institutions across architecture, music, visual art and performance. Arnaud Boetsch, Director of Communication and Image at Rolex, said: "Every year the Serpentine Pavilion demonstrates how important innovative ideas are to attract public support for architecture. This new partnership strengthens our brand's standing in the world of the arts. It resonates with Rolex's enduring commitment to craftsmanship, innovation, and excellence." Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist described the collaboration as a significant step for the future of the commission: "Serpentine's partnership with Rolex marks a significant new chapter for the Pavilion Commission, reinforcing its position not only as one of the most ambitious architectural platforms in the world, but also as a global cultural landmark." The pairing feels like a natural extension of both institutions' ambitions. Serpentine continues to position the Pavilion as a platform for experimentation and public exchange, while Rolex expands its long-running involvement with architecture and design through partnerships centred on craft, innovation and cultural legacy. As the Pavilion continues to grow beyond its original architectural remit, the addition of Rolex suggests a broader international framework for the programme's next chapter. Rolex and architectural achievement. Rolex has promoted architectural innovation, excellence and achievement through its support for the International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia since 2014, alongside its relationships with leading architects, including Rolex Testimonee Lina Ghotmeh, founder of Lina Ghotmeh - Architecture, and designer of the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion. For 60 years, the company has consistently collaborated with internationally renowned architects to create buildings that reflect the precision, innovation and excellence at the heart of its watchmaking. They include Michael Graves (Lititz Watch Technicum, Pennsylvania, US) and Fumihiko Maki (Rolex Toyocho Building), SANAA principals Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (the Rolex Learning Center for EPFL in Lausanne and the Serpentine Pavilion in 2009). In Dallas, Texas, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma designed the Rolex Building, a twisted seven -storey tower; and in New York City, Sir David Chipperfield's redesign of the Rolex USA headquarters is creating an exemplary building befitting the heritage and culture of the Rolex brand. From 20 02, architects became part of Rolex's dedicated mentorship programme, which ran for 20 years, pairing gifted young talents with those at the peak of their art. Architects who gave their time included: Álvaro Siza (who co -designed the Serpentine Pavilion in 2005), Kazuyo Sejima, Peter Zumthor (who designed the Serpentine Pavilion in 2011), Sir David Chipperfield and Anne Lacaton. Since then, Rolex has progressed from one -to-one mentoring relationships to forge new connections that will enable the transmission of artistic knowledge on a much larger scale. rolex.com

Serpentine launches Serpentine Reader Issue 02. Serpentine has launched the second edition of its annual publication, Serpentine Reader. Titled Issue 02: I Hope This Finds You Well, the new volume gathers essays, fiction, poetry and experimental writing that rethinks the language of self-help in an era shaped by climate anxiety, technological upheaval and social fragmentation. Contributors to the new issue include Stephanie Wambugu, Eliot Haworth, Alex Quicho, Anahid Nersessian, Joycelyn Longdon, Asa Seresin, David Lisbon and Ebun Sodipo. Produced as part of Serpentine's commitment to slow publishing and long-form research, the annual Reader creates space for extended reflection across different literary forms. Bringing together both emerging and established voices, the publication explores how storytelling and criticism can respond to contemporary cultural conditions. Following the first issue, Circulation, which examined the movement of water, bodies, images and power, the new volume turns its attention to the familiar phrase "I hope this finds you well." The issue asks what wellness means at a moment when systems of care - from healthcare to social support - appear increasingly strained or commodified. Across the collection, writers explore how the language of wellbeing has become embedded in everything from automated email greetings to corporate mindfulness programmes and AI companions. Rather than offering traditional advice, the texts investigate how ideas of self-improvement and resilience circulate within broader economic and technological systems. Several contributions take unexpected approaches to the topic. In "My Fourth or Fifth Time," Stephanie Wambugu follows a character disillusioned with therapy who begins to seek care in more uncanny and unconventional places. Eliot Haworth's "The Year in Animals" catalogues every animal-related story published in The New York Times over a year, revealing how nonhuman life is often framed through human interests. Elsewhere, Alex Quicho's "Refinement" examines emotional relationships between humans and large language models, while Anahid Nersessian revisits mid-twentieth-century experiments in collective psychiatric care. Joycelyn Longdon draws on the African practice of palaver, a form of ritualised dialogue, as a model for communal problem-solving and ecological responsibility. The publication also addresses the politics of care more directly. Asa Seresin considers how divorce has been reframed as a lifestyle choice shaped by privilege, while Ebun Sodipo documents self-help as a survival strategy for transgender people navigating the UK's healthcare system. Alongside the texts, artist **Alake Shilling contributes a series of illustrated characters paired with affirmations. Each copy of the publication includes one of five limited-edition motivational stickers from Shilling's series Everything is good, and rather splendid (2025). Through essays, stories and speculative reflections, Serpentine Reader: I Hope This Finds You Well asks how ideas of wellness are produced, circulated and contested - and whether self-help might still offer a collective language for imagining survival in uncertain times. "Sometimes I feel guilty making art while the world around me burns. But I am here for the small bit of joy I can contribute. The stickers I made for Issue 02 hold that irony, how we try to have hope, even joy, while feeling like we have one foot in the grave. Life is duality; nothing is absolute. For me, I hope this finds you well is both sincere and questioning. I think the best care you can take of yourself is choosing to look toward the light, even when it's dark. That's something I practice often." Alaka Shilling

LANZA atelier, founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, selected for the Serpentine Pavilion 2026. Serpentine is delighted to announce that the Mexican architecture studio LANZA atelier, founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, has been selected to design the 2026 Pavilion. Titled a serpentine, LANZA atelier's Pavilion will be unveiled to the public at Serpentine South on 6 June 2026 with Goldman Sachs supporting the annual project for the 12th consecutive year. As the Pavilion reaches its 25th edition, Serpentine will celebrate this landmark anniversary through a special partnership with the Zaha Hadid Foundation. Throughout its history, the Serpentine Pavilion has grown into a highly anticipated showcase for emerging talents. The Pavilion has evolved over the years as a participatory public and artistic platform for Serpentine's experimental, interdisciplinary, community and education programmes. LANZA atelier, founded in 2015 by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, is a Mexico City-based architecture studio. Their collaborative practice is rooted in the everyday and the informal, attentive to how technology, craft, and spatial intelligence emerge in unexpected conditions. Their work locates beauty in use, assembly, and encounter, proposing ways of building that foreground dialogue and collective experience. The duo places particular emphasis on hands-on design methods such as drawing and model-making, treating them as active tools for thinking through material, form, and structure. Working globally, the studio understands architectural practice as one that moves fluidly across cultural spaces, residential projects, public infrastructure, and furniture design, through a critical and engaged perspective. For this year's Serpentine Pavilion, LANZA atelier took its inspiration from the English architecture feature known as a serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall which forms one side of the pavilion. This type of brick wall, composed of alternating curves, originated in ancient Egypt and was later introduced to England by Dutch engineers. Its curvilinear form provides stability through lateral support, meaning the one-brick-wide serpentine wall requires fewer bricks than a straight wall. The eponymous feature also subtly nods to the nearby Serpentine lake, named for its gentle curvature, evoking the form of a serpent. In dialogue with the surrounding landscape, a second wall works in harmony with the tree canopy without disrupting it, while the main structure is positioned on the Northern side of the site. A translucent roof rests lightly on brick columns evoking a grove of trees. The pavilion's configuration allows light and air to permeate the space, softening the boundary between enclosure and openness. LANZA atelier chose brick as the primary material to celebrate the distinctly English garden tradition and establish a conversation with the existing brick façade of the Serpentine South Gallery, once a tea pavilion itself. Constructed from a rhythmic repetition of brick columns that transform the wall from opaque to permeable, the Pavilion becomes a metaphorical bridge between the geographies of Europe and the Americas. LANZA atelier said: "It is an honour to be selected as the architects of the 25th Serpentine Pavilion, a milestone year for the commission. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to share our work with a wider public and to contribute to the Pavilion's ongoing legacy of spatial experimentation and collective encounter. Set within a garden, an evocation of the natural world, the project takes the form of a serpentine wall, conceived as a device that both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation, and pause. Inspired by the figure of the serpent as a generative and protective force, we draw a parallel with England's winding fruit walls, which are structures that temper climate, create shelter, and enable growth. From this idea emerges a pavilion built of simple clay brick, foregrounding vernacular craft and the elemental capacity of architecture to bring people together. The 2026 Pavilion proposes built forms that are permeable, shaped and held by a gentle geometry, and continually responsive to those who move through it." Bettina Korek, Chief Executive, Serpentine said: "For 25 years, the Serpentine Pavilion has been a leading global platform for architectural experimentation - first inviting internationally significant architects yet to build in London, and later championing emerging voices. It offers a rare brief: to test ambitious ideas in an open, accessible setting. Conceived as a structure that extends beyond its walls, the Pavilion connects architecture, landscape, and people. With LANZA atelier, we strengthen cultural exchange with Mexico and reaffirm the Pavilion as a free, civic space of connection, central to our summer and autumn programmes. We are deeply grateful to our partners and supporters for making the Pavilion possible." Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine said: "Over the last 10 years the Serpentine Pavilion has increasingly focussed on giving opportunities to younger architectural practices. We are excited to announce that Mexican architects LANZA atelier will design the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion. LANZA atelier's architecture always involves a deep engagement with the local context, materials and lived experience. In their own words, they create contemporary spaces whose energy can last. Their spaces invite people to imagine a more connected, compassionate and creative future. As always, the Pavillion will be a content machine with lectures, film screenings and performances. We will also remember Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) who gave us our motto that "there should be no end to experimentation". As we mark the 25th Pavilion, we reflect on these origins. Since its inception in 2000, the Pavilion has acted as a catalyst for architects at pivotal moments in their careers. LANZA atelier's Pavilion will mark the second time Mexican architects are appointed since Frida Escobedo in 2018. We are grateful to LANZA atelier for embracing this invitation, and we extend our sincere thanks to Sou Fujimoto for his generous guidance." Throughout the Summer and until October, the Serpentine Pavilion 2026 will become a platform for Serpentine's live and events programme, providing encounters in music, film, theatre, dance, literature, philosophy, fashion and technology. Each year's commission respond to the unique architecture of the Pavilion, inviting audiences to experience the activated space. In 2026, Serpentine will collaborate with the Zaha Hadid Foundation to commemorate Zaha Hadid's legacy and mark the 25th Serpentine Pavilion. A dedicated programme on architecture will take place at Serpentine South. As the architect of the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion in 2000, Hadid's spirit of innovation has set the tone for what has since become one of the world's most influential architectural commissions. This approach continues to shape not only the Pavilion series, but also Serpentine's wider programme of exhibitions and live events. The programme will aim to explore Hadid's groundbreaking contributions to the field while connecting new and wider audiences with innovative architectural conversations. Bringing together leading architects, thinkers, and cultural practitioners, it will foster transnational and transgenerational architectural dialogue, inviting former Pavilion architects to explore questions at the forefront of architecture today, reflecting on Zaha Hadid's career and the legacy of the Pavilion whilst looking ahead to the possibilities of the future. This year's Pavilion selection was made by Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek; Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist; Director of Construction and Special Projects Julie Burnell; Exhibitions Curator Chris Bayley; Exhibitions Curator Tamsin Hong; and Assistant Exhibitions Curator Liz Stumpf, together with advisor Sou Fujimoto. Serpentine will publish LANZA atelier's first monograph to accompany the Pavilion. Designed by Estudio Herrera, it will bring together new and insightful contributions from the fields of architecture, art and poetry. Generously illustrated in colour, it also features an extensive conversation between LANZA atelier and Serpentine's Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and an essay by José Esparza Chong Cuy. Serpentine Pavilion 2026 Serpentine South 6 June - 25 October 2026 Press View: Wednesday 3 June, 8.30am - 12pm