International Day of Play 2025 sees the opening of LEGO Play Pavilion in London’s Kensington gardens, a space designed by Sir Peter Cook in collaboration with the LEGO Group and Serpentine Galleries.
Throughout summer 2025, Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park, London, will be home to the LEGO Play Pavilion. This unique space is a collaboration between the LEGO Group and Serpentine Galleries, designed by renowned architect Sir Peter Cook.
Play sessions will provide access to play for children who might not otherwise get their hands on LEGO bricks – they will recreate album covers, see how fast they can build and create original artworks conjured up from their imaginations.
“By partnering with the LEGO Group, the Play Pavilion extends a shared mission of building connections around play beyond Serpentine Galleries and into the park,” says Serpentine Galleries CEO Bettina Korek at a preview of the Play Pavilion. “Zaha Hadid’s credo that there should be no end to experimentation has become a mantra here at Serpentine and Peter’s fantastic structure continues this legacy, not only in form and function, but in one of Zaha’s long held dreams for Peter to create a structure in the park with Serpentine.
“Serpentine’s mission is to make new connections between artists and audiences and this is such a dream come true. We can’t wait to welcome visitors and have them experience new encounters with art and architecture.”
For years, the LEGO Group has championed the importance of play in the development of children and for the benefit of adults too. The Play Pavilion is just one installation around the world that celebrates the UN recognized International Day of Play.
“This is the first ever Play Pavilion and a companion to the main Serpentine pavilion,” says LEGO Head of Global Brand Strategy Kristofer Crockett. “It is designed to be a space that is now going to welcome play throughout the summer here in London.
“It’s only right that the first ever Play Pavilion opens on June 11. June 11 happens to be World Play Day. The United Nations Recognised Day of Play that the LEGO Group spent a lot of years helping to get off the ground is a moment for us to try to reflect on the importance that play has in everybody’s lives. What better ways to mark that moment by creating a space literally designed to welcome play?”
International Day of Play is more than just an occasion to encourage people to down tools and enjoy themselves, but to encourage everyone to think about how play is embedded in the day to day – or not.
“Play is disappearing. It’s disappearing from kids’ lives. Public spaces are shrinking. It’s probably easier to find a ‘no ball games’ sign than it is to actually find a place for kids to play ball games. So the Play Pavilion is a celebration, it’s also a call to action. It’s designed to be a joyful space that puts London’s youth at the centre. A place for creativity, for community, for bringing families and people together.
“For over 90 years, the LEGO Group has been all about trying to unleash people’s creativity and develop the builders of tomorrow through play. Play builds confidence. It sparks creativity. It energises people and brings families closer together. Play is essential, and it’s not optional. It’s essential for kids, for adults, for communities – and even for journalists.”
During an extended Q&A session, Sir Peter Cook discussed his career – and the Play Pavilion in particular – with Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist.
“There should be no dividing line between the artist, architect, the experimental object, the drawing, the prognostication and the theory,” said Peter, discussing his belief that buildings can have appealing forms while still being functional.
“I had to congratulate Tim and the boys in Yorkshire, I think they did amazing work [on the Play Pavilion]. They’re doing precision engineering. Although this looks like a sort of jolly bland piece of plastic, actually there’s a lot of engineering inside this so that it can be reusable. It’s really great that it’s not just a sort of out here for a few weeks, it will go into somewhere, whether it’s San Diego or Zagraib.”
He also talked about blending structures into the environment where they are being places. “This explores play in a certain colour palette and a certain context in amongst trees. This would have been called a high-tech building or a technical building existing concurrently with trees, with natural vegetations. Interestingly, in a lot of the drawings, I put tectonic objects mysteriously appearing in the undergrowth or some objects where you say, ‘is that a growth? Building? it sort of looks off, organised… what is it?’ I’m very interested in the edges.”
LEGO Play Pavilion is located in London, the UK’s most densely populated city and one lacking in spaces for children to play freely. It is also a city with a great wealth disparity and the venue will serve as a place for children to engage in build activities.
Peter encourages budding architects to think about how their buildings will fit into their context. “Living in many, many towns in the UK gives you a built-in instinct for urbanism. As a kid, you have to be pretty sharp to recognize where the chip shop is, where the model airplane shop is, where the bus stop is, where the dodgy street is. The comment I make to most students in crits, is to just take a look. ‘How do we arrive here? How do we get into this place? Is it different if you approach it from Notting Hill Gates? Is it different if you approach it from Kensington High Street? Is it different if you’re coming out from prom concert and seeing it lit up at night?’
“Design needs certain figurative elements. But then, as you come closer, there’s a revelation. See that patch, and it’s sort of dark red, you realise as you get closer, it’s not entirely red. It’s made up of surfaces and distances. The LEGO guys have done an amazing job with interpreting what were flat drawings saying, ‘if you can afford it, make it bulge out.’ We had a fallback condition here where we would have used paint if LEGO hadn’t, somehow dug in their pocket and pulled out more LEGO. But they responded wonderfully. And these things are more exuberant than even I expected.”
“I have to keep reinforcing that this is a functional object. I wanted the ridging to be even more waving around. And that would have cost more money because then the dome would have had to be bigger. It would be quote, unquote wasted space. And in a way, intellectually, I’m not sure whether the wall should hug the dome. Conceptually, the dome should be a protector and the walls an evocative space.
“What you do then is having been due to economic reasons forced into the wall having to hug the diagram, is then to start to invade the space. These columns are not the supporting columns. There are four supporting columns in the system. So already it’s not a modernist structure, because theoretically, these should be the supports, but no, there’s something else. These are the theatrical elements.”
Play Pavilion will be situated near the Serpentine south gallery in Hyde Park throughout summer 2025.