Work has started on this year's Serpentine Gallery summer pavilion, designed to look like an exploding timber yard.

The structure, devised by architect Frank Gehry, consists of large timber planks and a network of overlapping glass planes and is anchored by four massive steel columns. The first stage of construction has involved six wood trunks being put up on site.

Thousands of visitors are expected to see the finished pavilion, which will be open to the public from 20 July to 19 October.

Gehry, 79, who was responsible for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, described the temporary structure as "like an urban street".

"It's designed to serve as a place for live events, music, performance, discussion and debate," he added.

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commission, now entering its ninth year, presents the work of an international architect or design team who, at the time of the invitation, has not completed a

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building in Britain. Last year, the pavilion was designed by artist Olafur Eliasson and award-winning Norwegian architect Kjetil Thorsen. Their timber-clad structure resembled a spinning top and featured a wide, spiralling ramp allowing visitors to ascend from the gallery lawn to the highest point for views across Kensington Gardens.

The Pavilion architects to date are: Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond with Arup, 2006; Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, Arup, 2005; MVRDV with Arup, 2004- (unrealised); Oscar Niemeyer, 2003; Toyo Ito with Arup, 2002; Daniel Libeskind with Arup, 2001 and Zaha Hadid, 2000.