Clapham Gallery

The residential property along Rectory Road, Clapham is to provide a large art gallery and exhibition space, artist residency studio and landscaped sculpture garden. The new gallery facility serves as a workshop and exhibition space for the client and also provides workspace for local artists, enlivening the local community in an area which has a rich history of artisanal and craft based manufacturing. It is envisioned that the space will be a local incubator and a centre for philanthropy and community development. The space acts as a chameleon, shape shifting from gallery to studio with the introduction of mobile walls and ‘cabinets of curiosities’ offering both storage for artists and valuable wall space to display the art. At the heart of the project’s design philosophy is a focus on conservation and sustainability whereby materials salvaged from the light-touch demolition will be reintroduced to the new build elements. The proposal celebrates the rich history of the existing warehouse as a building set within a garden landscape, and provides a retrofit proposal that seeks to carefully carve out and reconnect the internal space with the abundant daylight and surrounding landscape context. The resulting space can be seen to fully compliment the continued history of the existing warehouse and will provide a contemporary and functional practicing arts and exhibition space for the client and for the wider local community of artists. The renovated space is both sustainable and respectful to the original structure, and is spatially and visually enriched by reconnecting the inside with the exterior sculpture garden landscape and site specific material palate.