This project creates a new permanent gallery and seminar space for a School of Architecture.

A felt-lined element organises the existing room into four spaces: an entrance hall, two galleries of varying character and a storage room for chairs. The gallery spaces are lined with display boards, clad in either felt or birch-face ply, which are hung from the masonry walls. Shelves of varying widths at the bottom of each board deal with the existing heating installations and act as display space or as bench seats.

The geometry of the new elements responds to and rationalises the ad-hoc nature of the existing space, whilst emphasising its generous volume. The shelf at the base of the new linings sets a constant datum, half a metre above the ground, whilst the tops of each element vary in height, in response to various pre-existing elements within the space. The material palette refers to that of the raw tectonic of the existing space, but its more refined quality offers a calm background for the contemplation of models and drawings, or for lectures and debate.