This week the Serpentine Pavilion opens in London’s Hyde Park. The annual project sees a temporary structure built in the park each summer, functioning as a vital laboratory for experimentation for the commissioned architect. In 2025, this is Dhaka-based Marina Tabassum. The Bangladeshi architect’s pavilion, called “A Capsule in Time”, is a striking assembly of four sculptural wooden forms with translucent façades that allow in a quiet, contemplative light.

To start with, please tell us about your practice.
I’ve always thought about it as a studio-based practice. It is more about bringing research, practice and education all together. So every project is not just about getting a client, doing the designs, and then sending it off to site. Instead, there’s a lot of research that goes into every project that we take on. We try to select work where there is some sort of challenge that we are trying to address. We want to be looking at pressing issues and trying to find a solution. It’s about looking at how relevant the project is to our time, place and context.

How does taking this research-based approach lead to better architecture?
From my early days, I really rejected the whole notion of architecture being a product, by which I mean real-estate developments. I tried not to pursue those projects because quite often, especially in our context, it’s always about flashy buildings, selling, instant gratification, glass and steel and building fast. The pace of that, combined with architecture that was only skin deep – because every square foot counts when you’re selling your building – did not sit well with me. I think architecture, quintessentially, is about creating space and reform at the same time. It has an inherent responsibility of giving a better life to people.

Your pavilion will function as a gathering place. Why was this important? And how did you facilitate this with your design?
I work a lot with very pure geometric forms and the building has what I call a capsule, which is about formal geometry. There’s a vaulted structure, with a half-dome shape, which is trying to create a space and the idea is that in this space, people come and spend time. It has the capacity, hopefully, to be able to embrace everyone who is there – people from different backgrounds, different diversities, coming together and celebrating humanity. Architecture, to me, is about coming and experiencing it. It’s something that should touch you to the core and create a dialogue with the person who’s inhabiting the space. It’s about having a spirit of place – that’s important because many buildings don’t have that.

How did you imbue the pavilion with this spirit of place?
Spirit of place is about giving a building a certain kind of personality, which actually speaks to you. When you’re able to create that, it stays with you as a visitor. For me, it’s very important that my buildings are a being, rather than a static, lifeless object. So that’s why I think bringing in light and anything natural addresses these aspects of a personality, giving the building a life of its own. It also comes out in the way that we designed the pavilion. I tried to use materials that I can find in the UK. We’ve never built with wood because in Bangladesh’s tropical climate people try to stay away from wood as much as possible.

The pavilion is, in many ways, a bellwether of the architecture industry. What do you hope other architects take away from your design?
One thing that comes to mind is the pavilion’s afterlife. For me, this was the starting point of this project. I wanted to consider the building’s life after its five months in the park. We want to find a location where it will settle and find a home. Having this in mind meant that I wanted to design it so that it has the ability to be turned into a library. I think knowledge is important. Nowadays, we hear about book bans and how education is being regulated so I think it’s important to bring out knowledge and put it out there. This is how we started the whole design process.

To hear more from Marina Tabassum, tune in to this week’s episode of ‘Monocle on Design’ on Monocle Radio.