Ten stand-out projects by Serpentine Pavilion architect Lanza Atelier
Who are the architects behind this year's Serpentine Pavilion? In this roundup, we take a look at 10 stand-out projects from the varied portfolio of Lanza Atelier.
Founded in Mexico City in 2015, Lanza Atelier is a six-strong studio led by partners in life and work, Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo.
The studio's portfolio spans furniture and exhibitions to houses and pavilions, unified by a focus on craft, collaboration and local context, and an ambition to challenge convention.
Abascal is from Spain and studied architecture at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Technische Universität Berlin and at Vastu Shilpa Foundation in Ahmedabad, while Arienzo is Mexican and studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
Alongside practising architecture, the duo also teaches and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Emerging Voices Award 2023 from the Architectural League of New York.
In an interview with Dezeen to mark the Serpentine Pavilion, Lanza Atelier's founders told Dezeen that they "have this feeling that we are part of a [new] generation" of Mexican architects.
Read on for 10 stand-out projects by the studio:
Charred Wood Base Pavilion, Mexico, 2025
The traditional Japanese Shou Sugi Ban technique was used to darken the plywood structure of this temporary pavilion in Mexico City.
Crowned by a corrugated plastic roof, the tilted, semi-enclosed form was crafted for arts agency Base to use as an events space that can be easily assembled and disassembled.
Find out more about Charred Wood Base Pavilion ›
Lanza Atelier incorporated sea-snail shells into the concrete surfaces of this house in Cancun, which was created for a client with a love for the ocean.
The home is designed to look inwards to maximise privacy, with living spaces organised around a series of voids and patios framed by walls of concrete and limestone.
Find out more about Caracol House ›
Rain chains line the perimeter of this eight-metre-tall pavilion, giving it a "dynamic, living quality" according to the studio.
Set on the plaza of a Mexico City shopping centre, the steel structure incorporates a reflective pool at its heart, which is overlooked by a wooden bench and elevated walkway.
Find out more about A10 Pavilion ›
A family of 4, 2024
A family of 4 is a chair collection that Lanza Atelier created in response to the arrival of the founders' second son. It is now part of the Denver Art Museum's design collection.
It comprises four seats of different heights that, on first view, appear to represent a traditional family, but they are actually intended to be shared by all family members in various scenarios.
For example, a ground-level chair could be used by adults entertaining a baby sitting on the floor, while the tallest chair could be enjoyed by a toddler wanting to sit in line with adults at a dinner table.
Re-Source at Storefront, USA, 2021
In 2021, Lanza Atelier led the exhibition design for a show at the Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery in SoHo, New York.
Plywood tables and stools that could be disassembled were used to exhibit artworks and given to visitors at the end of the show, highlighting the importance of reusing and repurposing materials.
"We wanted to propose an exhibition design that could have an afterlife," the studio told Dezeen.
Find out more about Re-Source at Storefront ›
Folding Chair, 2021
An example of a furniture design project by Lanza Atelier is its Folding Chair collection, described as "the mobile cousins of normal static chairs".
The seats are crafted from MDF and have fabric joints that allow them to be folded, transforming them into flat, abstract objects. The design was longlisted in the seating category of the Dezeen Awards in 2021.
1973-2021 at Concéntrico, Spain, 2021
This installation in a civic square in Logroño, Spain, took the form of a trio of giant circular benches with diameters of 20, 30 and 40 metres.
It was built outside a town hall to bring the space into a human scale and encourage social encounter, paying "tribute to buildings open to the public", the studio said.
Forest House, Mexico, 2019
Nestled in a pine forest near Mexico City, this brick-and-concrete house is designed to ensure nature is present throughout.
Its form was guided by the positions of trees on the site, with a curved corridor bordering the site with a brick lattice that offers glimpses of the surroundings.
Community Center Pavilion, Mexico, 2018
A walkway led visitors across a pond to reach this pavilion, which was set in the water and built from stacks of low-cost stabilised-earth blocks in Mexico City.
It was designed by Lanza Atelier, TO and architect Alberto Odériz to be dismantled and repurposed in the reconstruction of Ocuilan following an earthquake in 2017.
Find out more about Community Center Pavilion ›
Public Toilets and Kiosks, Mexico, 2015
Lanza Atelier's first official project was in Ecatepec, Mexico City, where it was commissioned to design a series of public toilets on a seven-kilometre bike path
The semi-open structures are built from concrete blocks and filled with planting, creating what the studio described as "a small oasis in the harsh climate of the bicycle track".
In an interview with Dezeen, Abascal said it looked for opportunities to push the boundaries of this project's brief, lobbying for all-gender bathrooms, "which, at the time, was something that was hard to pass through the government".
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