Peter Zumthor's garden within a garden

As the appointed architect of this year’s Serpentine summer pavilion, the widely revered Zumthor has unveiled his garden within a garden (open to the public from 1 July - 18 October 2011). Having teamed up with horticulturalist and trailblazer of the New Perennial planting movement, Piet Oudolf, Zumthor has designed a hortus conclusus, a meditative interior space for park dwellers.

A black box nestled amongst the lush tree line of Kensington Gardens, the pavilion staunchly looks inwards onto another world. Zumthor’s pavilion interior invites us to experience the natural architecture of plants. Gardens, in Zumthor's view, belong to architecture as much as agriculture.