Designed by award-winning Mizzi Studio, the new coffee house overlooking the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park forms part of a wider commission by the studio to transform 10 prestigious sites across London’s Royal Parks, with individually crafted, free-standing architectural structures, in partnership with artisan Italian café operators Colicci.
The design concept aims to create harmony between the structure and the park’s Grade I listed landscape, making it an integral part of the journey through the Royal Parks, welcoming visitors as they approach Hyde Park from Kensington Gardens.
Located between the Serpentine Galleries, with views across the Serpentine Lake and out towards the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, the new Serpentine Coffee House is an open, semi-transparent glass pavilion evoking the architecture traditionally seen in Japanese tea-houses – which creates a lightness that helps the building to integrate seamlessly into the landscape.
Its undulating canopy, designed to respond to the movement of the lake, has been hand-painted using specialist techniques and is intricately textured on the underside with snakeskin-inspired, coffer-like dimples. Tapered towards its edges, it cantilevers over the glass structure below to create extensive open-air seating, with capacity for 60 people to sit under and around it, within the parkland.
Following the opening of the Serpentine Coffee House, the transformation of the final three sites will be completed later in the autumn, including the flagship brass Horseshoe kiosk in St James’s Park, with Buckingham Palace as its backdrop, and two steam-bent oak structures in St James’s Park and Hyde Park.
Jonathan Mizzi, founder of Mizzi Studio, said: “It is an honour to have been entrusted with creating a new landmark for such a unique and beautiful setting within the Royal Parks. Visitors will be greeted by the welcoming smile formed by the coffee house’s curving canopy, before the glistening reptilian underbelly is revealed, providing a haven to pause and appreciate nature in the city.”
Director Rob Colicci said: “We have been working with Jonathan and the Mizzi Studio team for seven years and are immensely proud of what we have created in that time. Their creativity and ambition to pioneer such unique builds has pushed our brand forward and given us a truly unique selling point in a crowded market. The Serpentine Coffee House has set a new precedent for the experience of buying your coffee.”