The Serpentine Gallery announced yesterday that the 17th edition of the annual pavilion commission, to be revealed next summer, will be completed by African architect Diébédo Francis Kéré.

Kéré’s design centres around an angular wooden roof, conceived to resemble a tree canopy. It references the central tree in the architect’s west African home town of Gando, which is used as a meeting place for local residents.

The pavilion, too, is designed to respond to changing weather conditions, providing shade for visitors when the sun is shining, whilst rain will drain through the centre of the structure’s roof creating a spectacular waterfall-like effect.

Of the design, Kéré has said, ‘in [Gando], I am accustomed to being confronted with climate and natural landscape as a harsh reality … For this reason, I was interested in how my contribution to this royal park could not only enhance the visitor’s experience of nature, but also provoke a new way for people to connect with each other’.