Haworth Tompkins

Andrew Mummery and Wolfram Schnelle approached Haworth Tompkins to design a new gallery for them on Great Tichfield Street in central London. The gallery located on the ground floor of a former Victorian print works will exhibit work by young international contemporary artists such as Carol Rhodes, Zebedee Jones, Ori Gerhst and Merlin James.

New Independant Art Gallery

London, UK

The Gallery was keen that the space reflected a conscious move away from the ascetic 'white cube' environment of many contemporary galleries and provided a more accessible and engaging space.

An important aspect of this was retaining elements of the existing as found material; much of the brickwork was left exposed, the existing timber floor was renovated, stained and re-used for the main gallery space, and an unusual Victorian cast iron and concrete floor structure was revealed to form the floor of the private viewing gallery and office against which the new hanging surfaces were placed.

The brief called for a flexible exhibition space capable of being blacked out for video installation, an office linked to a private viewing room, and a large storage area for artwork. The budget was extremely tight and the project had to be completed in a very short space of time from inception to completion, with a 5 week contract on site.

Now the space is up and running a second project is now in place to install a new glazed frontage to the gallery and remodel external back of pavement space.

VIDEO

After Sotheby's Institute of Art - a video following Andrew Mummery and Wolfram Schnelle as they open a new contemporary art gallery in London in September, 2007. See how the gallery took shape and watch the first show.

Click here to watch the video

Mummery & Schnelle
Client: Andrew Mummery & Wolfram Schnelle
Independant Art Gallery

Completion: 2007