What's red and black and, well, red all over? The Serpentine summer pavilion

It is a temple to fun created for serious cultural debate.

The new Serpentine summer pavilion unveiled today is a glowing red edifice complete with matching scarlet and black chess boards, table tennis tables and hammocks.

Visitors to the café can buy drinks cooled in trendy scarlet Smeg fridges, all chosen to the demanding specifications of French architect Jean Nouvel. Red fruits and flowers have been planted.

The most enthusiastic fans can even sleep over, spending a night under the retractable red roof and exploring the "psychedelic qualities of insomnia".

The award-winning architect, whom the Prince of Wales tried to remove from a £500million development next to St Paul's Cathedral, is said to have recoiled in horror at any suggestion of a hint of white.

But alongside the party games - and this Thursday's annual star-studded fundraising party - the building will host a more serious programme of music, theatre, performances, talks and film over the summer.

Nouvel, 64, said: "I like English parks. I wanted to add something, a little optimistic event, to create one more reason to be here."

The pavilion is the tenth in a series conceived by Julia Peyton-Jones, the gallery's director, who thought the way to create audiences for architecture was to commission new temporary works from world-class architects yet to see their work built in London.

"Like all amazing projects, if you knew at the beginning what we knew at the end you wouldn't even dare to do it," she said. "There's always a moment, probably around February, when you think, 'Oh, my Lord, are we really going to pull this off again?'"

This year Arts Council London stepped in to help funding "so we were able to embrace the project fully without having to be permanently on the barricade fund-raising".

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion opens on Saturday until October 17.