Gagosian Grosvenor Hill
London, United Kingdom 2012–2015
Client: Gagosian RIBA Award
Gagosian’s main London gallery at Grosvenor Hill is located in the centre of Mayfair, close to Berkeley Square. The gallery occupies the whole ground floor of a podium and slab residential building from the 1960s. The tall gallery spaces are located in the podium, with the viewing rooms and offices for Gagosian on the first floor of the slab building above. The project was made in collaboration with Tate Hindle, the architects of the Grosvenor Estate.
The 1,800-square-metre gallery area consists of two large rectangular galleries connected by two smaller squarer galleries to form a tight cluster of rooms. The lighting for the large galleries received a lot of attention, as it was not possible for these spaces to have natural lighting from above. The galleries are lit with artificial light from a translucent glass laylight that occupies the central area of the ceilings. The source of the light is LED in arrays within the structural depth of the roof. The colour of the light can be controlled and varied from warm to cool, or even set to follow the intensity and colour of the daylight outside. Each gallery also has one large window in the external wall, which reinforces the impression that the galleries are lit with natural light. The floor of the gallery is also unusual. The floor is constructed with engineered timber, with a floor surface of large oak end-grain blocks that are fumed to a very dark brown colour, almost black. Unlike the concrete floor that is conventional in most galleries of contemporary art, the deep colour of the oak block floor is luxurious, reflecting the metropolitan location of these special gallery spaces.
Drawings
Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Lower offices plan
Upper offices plan
Long section
Related news
Caruso St John have designed an exhibition of sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, Bruce Nauman and Pablo Picasso for Gagosian's Grosvenor Hill gallery.
Exhibition
Visions of the Self:
Rembrandt and Now
Gagosian Gallery Grosvenor Hill, London, United Kingdom
12 April-18 May 2019
Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now, the exhibition designed by Caruso St John is open at Gagosian Gallery Grosvenor Hill.
The new Gagosian Gallery in Mayfair opens to the public today. The gallery opens with an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and works on paper by Cy Twombly.
Credits
Location
London, United Kingdom
Date
2012–2015
Client
Gagosian
Area
2,230m²
Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John
Project architects
Nina Lundvall, Bernd Schmutz, Martin Pasztori, Will Pirkis
Project team
Charles Bedin
Collaborating architects
Tate Hindle
Structural engineer
Ramboll
Services consultant
Ramboll
Cost consultant
Jackson Coles
Project manager
Jackson Coles
CDM coordinator
Jackson Coles
Main contractor
Westgreen Construction
Photography
Hélène Binet
Ioana Marinescu
Awards
RIBA Award
Westminster Society Biennial Award for Architecture Winner