Exterior view of the spectacular 'spinning top' Pavilion. Photo Rose Shillito/24 Hour Museum

A spectacular wooden pavilion resembling a giant spinning top has been unveiled next to the Serpentine Gallery in London and is due to open to the public tomorrow (Friday August 24).

The long-awaited Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007, which is the eighth annual summer pavilion commissioned by the gallery, will be a café and public space during the day and an arts venue during the evening until it closes on November 5.

Every year, the Serpentine Gallery invites an international architect who has not yet completed a building in the UK to design a temporary pavilion and the open brief has resulted in some of the most innovative and experimental structures the city has seen.

Interior of the Pavilion, showing stepped seating area and louvre-walled winding promenade. Photo Rose Shillito/24 Hour Museum

This year’s design, which is a collaborative effort between internationally acclaimed Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and award-winning Norwegian architect Kjetil Thorsen, does not disappoint.

Olafur Eliasson is best known in Britain as the artist behind the hugely popular installation The Weather Project, which saw a foggy sunset light up the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern art gallery four years ago.

Visitors to the new pavilion will be able to follow a winding promenade that makes its spiralling ascent around the structure from the Gallery lawn to the highest point for views across Kensington Gardens as well as a bird’s eye view of the chamber below.

The ascending ramp that spirals around the outside of the building, showing the top of the walkway above. Photo Rose Shillito/24 Hour Museum

Initially, the ramp leads into a large interior area with a circular space in the middle and seating around the edges, resembling a kind of parliamentary chamber. The walls are made up of an intricate geometrical pattern and the space is lit by daylight emitted through an aperture in the roof.

By continuing to follow the winding promenade as it makes two complete turns around the structure, the visitor will eventually arrive at the top of the pavilion and on to a small balcony or viewing platform which overlooks the main chamber.

Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen said: “Based on the principle of a winding ramp, the 2007 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion explores the idea of vertical circulation within a single space. The aim is to reconsider the traditional, single-level pavilion structure by adding a third dimension: height. The vertical movement of visitors in the pavilion will complement the horizontal circulation in the exhibition spaces at the adjacent Serpentine Gallery.”

View of interior chamber taken from the viewing balcony reached at the top of the ramped walkway. Photo Rose Shillito/24 Hour Museum

Serpentine Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones said she was “absolutely delighted” with the finished design, and went on to say:

“Although the design looks complex, it is made from just two materials: steel and plywood. The principle is actually very simple, which it has to be in order to be demountable. If materials are limited, it is incredible what can be achieved.”

This year, the Park Nights programme of events will see the pavilion operate as a ‘laboratory’ every Friday night with artists, architects, academics and scientists leading a series of public experiments, many of which will be based around the five senses.

“We want to create new and extraordinary experiences,” said Serpentine Gallery director of international projects, Hans Ulrich Obrist. “It is important to experiment with formats to produce an interactive and holistic experience that goes beyond the usual limits of sensory perception.”

Previous designers of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion have included the British-Iranian architect Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and designers Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond who produced last year's balloon-like structure.