Frank Gehry and Gerhard Richter at the Serpentine

We left the Dana Centre and met Greg Epps, who accompanied us as we walked up Gloucester Road and through Kensington Gardens to the Serpentine Gallery. Here, we enjoyed a relaxing lunch in the 2008 Gallery Pavillion, designed and engineered by Frank Gehry in collaboration with Arup.

"Gehry and his team took inspiration for this year’s Pavilion from a fascinating variety of sources including the elaborate wooden catapults designed by Leonardo da Vinci as well as the striped walls of summer beach huts. Part-amphitheatre, part-promenade, these seemingly random elements make a transformative place for reflection and relaxation by day, and discussion and performance by night."

Opinions of the structure were mixed. Some did not like the "blocky" appearance or the "cheap pine" look of the wood. Others loved the way the light came through in soft dappled stripes.

Carl Collins, CAD manager at Arup Associates (N.B. not the part of Arup associated with this project) said: "It reminds me of a flat-pack shed I once built ... I like it!"

After lunch, we had a quick look round the current exhibition in the gallery: Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours: Version II

"4900 Colours comprises 196 square panels of 25 coloured squares that can be reconfigured in a number of variations, from one large-scale piece to multiple, smaller paintings. Richter has developed a new version especially for the Serpentine Gallery exhibition: 4900 Colours: Version II, formed of 49 paintings of 100 squares.

4900 Colours is in the context of Richter’s design for the south transept window of Cologne Cathedral, which replaced the stained glass that was destroyed in World War II. Cathedral Window, unveiled in August 2007, comprises 11,500 hand-blown squares of glass in 72 colours that are derived from the palette of the original medieval glazing."

Although I generally enjoy systems-based art, and appreciate the nerdiness of the grid, I felt that this particular use of a system was somehow a bit sterile - random for the sake of randomness, perhaps. They are nice and bright and colourful, however, and I imagine the cathedral window, which I haven't yet seen, looks splendid.