The Dress Box

Costume collections are fragile and vulnerable. The artefacts are beautifully crafted and precious, yet far from easy objects to conserve. The private Client’s collection of haute couture dresses required special storage conditions: safe yet easily accessible, with room for expansion.

The new insertion proposed by Bernard Stilwell Architects has been put in a forgotten first floor lightwell within the client’s large house. Prized views from bedrooms and staircase, of the sky and the landscaped garden beyond, glimpsed through a single opening from the inner terrace to the outside, have been skilfully preserved – possibly enhanced. A Brief which could have been answered with a functional storage box, has been taken as an opportunity imaginatively to transform an ignored and not much loved damp court into a sparkling space, both when seen from inside and from outside.

The conservation of the artefacts demanded a sealed environment, with tightly controlled temperature and humidity. Without much space for thick wall construction, on a first floor timber joisted flat roof, the external surface had to be carefully researched. Super-insulating glass was chosen for a variety of reasons: the thin external envelope enables maximum use of space on the roof terrace – space for dresses inside, and enough room to walk around the box on the outside, keeping distance from the surrounding brick walls.

Until recently, the ‘air conditioned glass box’ concept could be seen as an ecologically thoughtless aspect of Miesian modernism. However recent advances in glass technology have made it environmentally acceptable. Super insulating triple-glazed panels, with UV filters to reduce solar gain, mean the amount of energy consumed in heating and cooling is minimised. The super-insulated glazing maintains the stored objects in an ideal environment. Reflections and transparency, both inside and outside, are increased by the special films and coatings on the glass surfaces as well as the judicious placing of lights and polished stainless steel surfaces. The result is a glittering, sparkling addition to a previously gloomy space.

Sustainability is about more than simply the material properties and qualities of a new building. As a result of carefully considered design, the pre-existing spaces, the adjacent rooms and staircase have been brightened up, enhanced, and made more usable.