Tenderbooks

Located in Cecil Court, the pedestrian alley famous for centuries as the home of booksellers and publishers, they specialise in artist books, and provide a home for experimental and avant-garde publications. New building works have transformed the ground floor and basement of their premises, providing an event space below ground that accommodates signings, performances and installations, and a shop space at ground level, off the street. This arrangement reflects the client’s conception of a bookstore as a nimble place of action in the city, where space is left for sharing, discussion and debate. Works were developed in close consultation with the client, and designed and constructed as a collaborative project by Hugh Strange Architects and Jones Neville, having worked together successfully on a number of projects in the past. This trust enabled an integrated solution where the project could be designed and executed in a seamless manner, architect and maker valuing each other’s contribution, with communication mostly carried out verbally rather than with formal drawings. The interiors were stripped back, focusing attention on the tall timber-lined interior of the shop space, and the pavement lights that illuminate the lower level. A series of new timber shelves, tables and counters inhabit the spaces and transform how they can be used.