Travel To: Serpentine

Serpentine has presented pioneering contemporary art since 1970. From the Pavilion to exhibitions, Serpentine champions new ideas in art and architecture. Serpentine’s annual architectural commission showcases new temporary buildings by international architects. A new Pavilion opens every summer and hosts live programmes and events.

This summer Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) brings a distinctive vision to the Serpentine Pavilion 2025. Marina Tabassum's design evokes a meaningful dialogue between the permanent and ephemeral nature of the commission. Along the north-south axis of the park, A Capsule in Time features an elongated capsule-like form with a central court that aligns with Serpentine South’s bell tower. Inspired by summer park-going and arched garden canopies that filter soft daylight through green foliage, the structure is comprised of four wooden sculptural forms with a translucent façade that diffuses and dapples light when it enters the space. Integral to Tabassum’s design is a kinetic element where one of the capsule forms is able to move, connect and transform the Pavilion into a new space.

In this webinar, Serpentine's Artistic Director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, will introduce the Pavilion and discuss A Capsule in Time with Marina Tabassum. There will be a live Q&A with Chris Bayley, Exhibitions Curator, Serpentine.

This event is part of Archtober's virtual Travel To series, in partnership with Bloomberg Connects. The Travel To series seeks to highlight Bloomberg Connects partners that feature iconic architecture and historically significant sites across the United States and around the world. Join us as curators, preservationists, historians (and more!) bring these places and spaces alive in the comfort of your home.

Speakers:
Chris Bayley, Exhibitions Curator, Serpentine
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine in London; Senior Advisor, LUMA Arles
Marina Tabassum, Founder, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA)

About the Speakers:
Chris Bayley is a curator and writer based in London, UK. He is currently Exhibitions Curator at Serpentine where he has worked on exhibitions and accompanying publications including Serpentine Pavilion 2025 A Capsule in Time designed by Marina Tabassum (2025); Judy Chicago: Revelations (2024: and subsequent tour to Kunsthalle Recklinghausen); Tomás Saraceno: Web(s) of Life (2023); and Barbara Chase-Riboud: Infinite Folds (2022). Previously he was Assistant Curator at Barbican, where he worked on Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics (September 2022); Shilpa Gupta: Sun at Night (2021); Claudia Andujar: The Yanomami Struggle (2021); Masculinities: Liberation through Photography (2020); Yto Barrada: Agadir; and Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-Garde (both 2018), authoring and editing publications for many of these projects. He was also Associate Curator at VITRINE, London from 2014 until 2024 and has worked on exhibitions with artists such as Leah Clements and Kate Cooper, among many others. His writing has been published in numerous books, articles and magazines, most recently Vitamin V: Video and the Moving Image in Contemporary Art (Phaidon, 2025).

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of Serpentine in London, and Senior Advisor at LUMA Arles. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show ‘World Soup (The Kitchen Show)’ in 1991, he has curated more than 350 exhibitions. In 2011 Obrist received the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, in 2015 he was awarded the International Folkwang Prize, and in 2025 he received the Prix François Morellet. Obrist’s recent publications include 140 Ideas for Planet Earth (2021), Edouard Glissant: Archipelago (2021), James Lovelock: Ever Gaia (2023), Remember to Dream (2023), Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in The Digital Age (2024) and A Life In Progress (2025).

Marina Tabassum is an acclaimed architect and educator who has received numerous international recognitions for her contributions in the field of architecture. She graduated in 1995 from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Prior to founding Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) in 2005, Tabassum was a founding partner of the Dhaka-based firm URBANA between 1995 and 2005 with Kashef Chowdhury. In 1997, URBANA won the national competition to design the Independence Monument of Bangladesh and the Museum of Independence under the Public Works Department and the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs. Tabassum’s practice remains consciously contained in size—prioritizing climate, context, culture and history—undertaking a limited number of projects per year.

Tabassum is a Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She held the Norman Foster Chair at Yale University in 2023 and has taught as a visiting professor at numerous universities, including the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, USA; the University of Toronto, Canada; and BRAC University, Bangladesh. She received an Honorary Doctorate from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and served as academic director at the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements between 2015 and 2021.

Tabassum’s pursuit for the ‘architecture of relevance’ has won her numerous awards including the Soane Medal from the United Kingdom; Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture; and the Jameel Prize from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 for the Bait ur Rouf Mosque and has served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture from 2017 to 2022 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). In 2024, Tabassum was included in TIME Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People’.

Tabassum chairs the Executive Board of Prokritee, a fair-trade organization that promotes crafts and provides livelihood to thousands of women artisans of Bangladesh. She is the founding chairperson of the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (F.A.C.E), a non-for-profit organization that focuses on climate adaption and architecture’s agency and responsibility in providing dignified living conditions for marginalized populations. F.A.C.E is currently working with communities to build mobile modular housing (known as Khudi Bari) in various geographically and climatically challenged locations in Bangladesh.

Tabassum’s work is currently the subject of a traveling exhibition organized by Architektur Museum der TUM, Munich, showing in Lisbon and Delft. She has previously presented work at Whitechapel Gallery, London (with Rana Begum, 2019); Sharjah Architecture Triennale (2019); and Venice Architecture Biennale (2018). Her work has been published by ArchiTangle; Harvard Graduate School of Design; ORO Editions; and Lars Müller Publishers among others.

About Archtober's Guide on Bloomberg Connects:
Archtober’s Guide on the free Bloomberg Connects App is for anyone interested in connecting with architecture and design. Whether you are an architectural historian, a design enthusiast, a student, or someone having their first architecture experience, the Archtober Guide is designed to help you explore notable contemporary and historical sites across New York City’s five boroughs. Learn more about the Archtober Guide here.

If you register for a virtual ticket, you will receive an email with a Zoom link to access the program.