World-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will create the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, the12th commission in the gallery’s annual series.

The design team responsible for the celebrated Beijing National Stadium, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games and won the prestigeous RIBA Lubetkin Prize, will come together again in a special development of the Serpentine’s acclaimed annual commission. It will be Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei’s first collaborative built structure in the UK.

The Pavilion will take visitors beneath the Serpentine’s lawn to explore the hidden history of its previous Pavilions. Eleven columns characterising each past Pavilion and a 12th column will support a floating platform roof 1.5m above ground.

Taking an archaeological approach, the architects have created a design that will inspire visitors to look beneath the surface of the park as well as back in time across the ghosts of the earlier structures.

Practice Herzog & de Meuron was established in Basel in 1978 and has designed a wide range of projects from small-scale private homes to large-scale urban design. Herzog & de Meuron were the architects behind the conversion of London's Bankside Power Station into Tate Modern in 2000.

Conceptual artist Ai Weiwei also works as an architect, photographer, curator and globally recognised human rights activist. in October 2010, Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds was installed in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall.
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion will operate as a public space and as a venue for Park Nights, the gallery’s high-profile programme of public talks and events. Park Nights will culminate in October 2012 with the Serpentine Gallery Memory Marathon, the latest edition of the annual Serpentine Marathon series conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist, now in its seventh year.