Blain Southern Gallery
London, United Kingdom 2010–2013
Client: Blain Southern
The gallery is located on the ground and lower ground floors of a new office building in Mayfair. The entrance gallery is on the corner of Hanover Square and Hanover Street, and is quite open to the surrounding city. From this reception space, one can proceed to the main ground floor gallery or walk down to a suite of viewing rooms and offices.
The main gallery is twenty-one metres long by thirteen metres wide and is 4.5 metres high. A rhythm of shallow beams provides a structure for the lighting track and other services and serves to locate the single column that is off-centre in the room. The floor is made in large slabs of precast concrete, whose lightly polished surface has a depth and a warm tone like archaic slabs of sandstone.
A wide stair, made in the same precast concrete, leads to the 3.5-metre-high viewing rooms downstairs. The gallery entrance is articulated by three large pieces of furniture – the reception desk, a tall bookcase for catalogues, and a long bench by the windows to Hanover Square; made in European walnut and leather. On the lower level, cupboards and doors to the viewing rooms are also made in walnut.
The gallery offices are on the top floor of the same building. A large open plan office area is complemented by directors’ offices and an art library. The floor and extensive built-in furniture for the offices is made in lightly fumed oak.







Drawings

Ground floor plan

Lower ground floor plan

Sections

Stair plan

Stair elevation
Credits
Location
London, United Kingdom
Date
2011–2013
Area
1675 m² gallery
575 m² offices
Client
Blain Southern
Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John
Project architects
Timo Keller (gallery & offices), Will Pirkis (offices)
Project team
Catija Christenssen, Will Pirkis, Mille Herstad
Structural engineer
Ramboll
Services engineer
Max Fordham
Cost consultant
Jackson Coles
Project manager
Castle Davies
CDM advisor
Jackson Coles
Main contractors
Westgreen
Knight Harwood
Acoustics
Max Fordham
Photography
Ioana Marinescu
Peter Mallet
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