For one year at least the Serpentine Gallery in London is departing from its usual policy of having an architect that has never built in the UK design its Summer Pavilion. Well it is almost a departure. This summer Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron will design the pavilion despite Herzog & de Meuron having converted the Bankside power station into the the Tate Modern, and Ai Weiwei having his sun flour seeds installation in the gallery in 2010.
The Serpentine gallery justified it's departure for this year's 12th pavilion as a special case in London's Olympic year. By bringing together the artist and architect team responsible for the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium at the Beijing games, they perhaps hope to carry the spirit of the games to London.
