QUOTATION: What does history have in store for architecture today? The Semblance of Use History, Function and Aesthetics in the Serpentine Pavilions John Macarthur The University of Queensland Abstract In the recent phenomenon of pavilions commissioned from architects by visual arts institutions, a recurring criticism addresses their functional failure. Pavilions, it seems, leak, are too hot, are uncomfortable to sit in, or lack a discernible use all together. While it is common to assume that the relaxation of functionality is necessary for these works to be artistic, their frequent negligence of the limited functions that they might have in enabling a reception, a talk or debate, rankles many critics in a way that is obvious, but not trivial. The similarity of architectural pavilions to aspects of contemporary visual art reveals much about the differential specificity of cultural disciplines today. It seems, however, that these complex ideational games cannot commence unless the pavilion is first constituted as architecture in its own right, by virtue of a utility which it largely disregards. This paper takes Immanuel Kant’s description of garden art as having only ‘the semblance of use’ to consider the logic of ornamental buildings in their history back to the eighteenth century. Despite their primary role in the spatio-visual structuring of a landscape, follies, fabrique, temples and grottos also had uses as dining rooms, gatehouses, icehouses and dairies. According to Kant, if an object is considered to be determined by a pre-existing concept (in the case of a building, a concept of its use), it could not be an object of aesthetic judgement. Therefore, we can think of historical ornamental buildings as having shown a path for architecture to be considered art, by achieving an impure but effective aesthetic autonomy, by having a utility which was experienced as mere semblance. The current pavilion phenomenon has been criticised for its popularity and ubiquity. Against such a view, I argue that by putting contemporary pavilions back into the longer history of ornamental building we can see why a pavilion’s negligence of its function raises fundamental aesthetic issues that are as relevant to the visual arts as they are to architecture.