The Lilas Pavilion, a design by the late architect Dame Zaha Hadid, will be on view at the Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, UK this fall. Part of the Sotheby’s annual “Beyond Limits” sculpture exhibition, the organic design gains new life on the lawn of the 16th-century manor.
Hadid originally designed the Lilas Pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery’s 2007 edition of their annual fundraiser, The Summer Party. The Serpentine commissions a new pavilion for the party each year, enlisting architects like Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Oscar Niemeyer, and Rem Koolhaas.
The Chatsworth House, outside of which Zaha Hadid’s Lilas Pavilion will be on display. Photo courtesy of OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images.
In 2007, Olafur Eliasson and architect Kjetil Thorsen originally designed a steel structure. However, high prices of the material at the time delayed the pavilion, and Hadid, who also designed the 2000 pavilion, stepped in to execute an expertly rendered last-minute solution.
After the 2007 event, the pavilion was sold to a private collector, who is now hoping to find Lilas a new home through Sotheby’s. The auction house has not listed a price for the pavilion, but the Guardian estimates it could sell for upwards of £500,000, based on the sale results for previous Serpentine Pavilions.
Detail the Lilas Pavilion. Photo by Luke Hayes, courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects.
At 5.5 meters high, the fabric structure was inspired by flower petals and leaves. Three cantilevered parasols interweave but don’t touch, allowing light and sound to pass through the open-air design. At night, the structure emits a blue and purple glow.
Sotheby’s “Beyond Limits” is one of the foremost platforms for the sale of large-scale, outdoor, contemporary sculpture, and this year’s edition runs from September 10 to October 30.