Arts
Arts buildings are some of the most heavily used spaces we design. An artist decides they want to make a hole. A theatre foyer becomes a classroom at three in the afternoon. We’ve learned that the best arts spaces aren’t precious; they’re robust enough to survive the reality of programming and flexible enough to let curators take real risks.
Most people think of a gallery as somewhere to display art. We think of it more as the infrastructure to support a programme: galleries, workshops, stores, loading, making spaces, technical facilities and all the less visible activity. For the people running these organisations, the work around the exhibition can be as important as the exhibition itself.
Over the past two decades we’ve converted a thatched barn into a gallery, turned a Grade II-listed church into a Welsh-language theatre, and opened up a blank-walled museum so its café finally talks to the street. At Matt’s we hijacked the aesthetic of a half-built commercial unit. At TACO! we inserted brick walls and floors behind a glass shopfront. At Sylvia Kouvali we ignored the landlord’s instinct to repair and improve, making a new gallery from strangely unreflective mirrors, worn and damaged surfaces, and none of the usual ceiling stuff.
We work with organisations who broaden who art and culture are for. At Nyth, the building gives local people access to the theatre while providing the facilities to make work with national ambitions. At Focal Point Gallery, built as part of a new public library in Southend, we designed the entrance to draw people towards the gallery whether or not they had come looking for it. At Milton Keynes, contemporary art sits alongside heritage craft, making and learning, bringing different audiences and activities together.
We work with artists and institutions who know their own minds, and we listen hard before we draw a line. The result is spaces that support the work rather than compete with it: backdrops, not centre stages.
