A Capsule in Time: Weaving Cultural Memory into Form

Like a warm timber cocoon emerging from freshly laid turf, acclaimed Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum’s 2025 Serpentine Pavilion gently nestles into London’s Kensington Gardens, a striking reflection on impermanence, nature, and memory. Titled A Capsule in Time, the pavilion is a “celebration” of the spectrum of British summertime, from blazing sunshine to bleak drizzle, joy to introspection.

“This is a capsule which captures everything that happens within these few months,” Tabassum explained during the launch, speaking with the Grimshaw Foundation. “And then it sort of moves on to somewhere else.”

Tabassum's concept of A Capsule in Time speaks to the temporality of both structure and experience. “The pavilion is here from June to October, and then it moves on to a certain afterlife, hopefully,” she says. The form itself – comprised of two vaulted canopies and semi-domes – echoes a capsule, its soft arches and cuts allowing light, air, and even rain to filter through. This openness blurs the boundary between structure and surroundings, between built space and living park.

“There’s always this awareness that you’re still in a park,” Tabassum notes. “When it rains, it comes through. When it’s sunny, it casts beautiful shadows. It’s a celebration of nature, of being in a park.”

More than just a temporary space, A Capsule in Time, which marks the 25th year of Serpentine Pavilions, becomes an archive - one that stores moments of joy, of coming together. “It also has a life in the virtual realm,” she adds, pointing to the timeless nature of how architecture is also experienced through film and photography.

"From the very beginning of my practice, I've always tried to understand, how do you create an identity in architecture?" Tabassum said. For this pavilion, she drew inspiration from Shamiyanas - the vibrant, temporary awnings used for community gatherings across South Asia. Constructed from bamboo and colourful fabric, these structures create spaces where light filters through in playful dapples.

“When we were children, when there was a big gathering, like a wedding, it was always under a Shamiyana,” she recalls. “That’s a memory I really cherish. So when I was designing this pavilion, I thought - that’s my reference for a pavilion. How can I bring that here?”

The use of translucent polycarbonate panels in the pavilion is a modern interpretation of these traditional forms. Diffused daylight creates a luminous, almost dreamlike quality inside the pavilion, "cheerful, yet pensive".

“I always like working with light,” Tabassum says, referencing her earlier projects such as the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque, where light and shadow play integral roles. “So on sunny days, the pavilion will be bright and festive. That’s what I wanted to bring from Bangladesh to London, a memory of space that is joyful and rooted in my own cultural landscape.”

For Tabassum, A Capsule in Time also marks a personal milestone: her structure made almost entirely of wood. “We are using timber as it is available and can be sourced easily, and it means the structure can also move” she explains.

The pavilion’s geometric half-capsule form, wrapped in polycarbonate, builds on a tension between solidity and impermanence. At the heart of the design lies a Ginkgo tree, planted in the central courtyard, a symbol of longevity, resilience, and a shared, ancient bond with nature.

A Capsule in Time is an elegant embodiment of that sense of magical minimalism. Modest in material, generous in spirit, and deeply rooted in both place and memory, Marina Tabassum’s pavilion offers the public not just a space for summer, but a reminder of how architecture can hold time, culture, and community in one shared space.

By Elise Nwokedi