Massimo De Carlo Gallery

They wanted a different gallery from the typical white box exhibition concept. We visited several potential spaces in Mayfair with Mr De Carlo, the gallery owner, and we fell in love with the first floor of a Grade II listed building on Clifford Street. The building, completed in 1723, is a typical Georgian brown brick and slate roof. Through our historical research, we know that the floorplans have been drastically altered through time and none of the original finishings survive on the first floor. Before our client took the space, it had been home to a renowned leather craft laboratory and store that had added several features such as a highly decorated timber partition with mirrors of no particular quality. Our architectural strategy was to do as little as possible in the space, the minimum necessary to ensure the gallery could operate and install its exhibitions. Apart from necessary repairs to walls, ceilings, and fixtures, we added a new exhibition lighting track system on the ceiling and replaced the chandeliers that the previous tenant had removed with bespoke chandeliers crafted in Italy. The existing timber floor, which had served as a carpet underlay for many years, was restored and left exposed. The existing walls of the space were of a pale green hue and, while an atypical colour for a contemporary art gallery we decided to match the same colour for walls and ceiling providing an intriguing backdrop for the artists exhibiting in the gallery. We aimed to create a balance between elegance and simplicity, a space that offers an innovative exhibition model for art, and where creativity and history coexist.