Michael Hoppen Gallery

location: Chelsea, London
services: stages A-L
year: 2012

The gallery for contemporary photography is located off Kings Road in a Victorian warehouse building. The ground floor has good exposure towards the street, tall ceilings and abundance of daylight. The new exhibition space was added to the existing gallery, that extends upwards with further showrooms on first and second floors. The design for the refurbishment improves existing spatial qualities by lining walls back to the shell of the building. The bespoke and multifunctional furniture caters for all secondary needs of the gallery at ground floor level. The two workstations contain bookshelves, informal seating, storage and large counter-top surfaces to layout prints and books. The furniture is freely movable to allow a maximum of flexibility and also acts also as a bar at exhibition openings. The material choice of Latvian birch plywood responds to the original pine flooring and the character of the upstairs showrooms.