As a studio we visited Roche Court in Wiltshire, a working farm with 60 acres of land dedicated to sculptural works of art. The New Art Centre was founded in 1958 in Sloane Square until 1994 when it was relocated to Wiltshire. The centre has 4 to 5 exhibitions a year. The house on the farm was built in 1804 and is still a private home. There is also a gallery on site, which has won 6 architectural awards including the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize for best small building. It was designed by Stephen Marshall for more vulnerable works and paintings that could not be exhibited outside.
One of the special design features of the gallery is the curtain wall glazing that doesn’t meet. This allows for the art-work to breathe creating the correct temperature and humidity inside the exhibition space. The concrete floor in the gallery is stepped giving the illusion of 1 large space or 3 separate smaller spaces. There is a large overhang on the front of the building, which mimics the overhang of the roof on the 1804 manor house. The vertical timber doors mimic the columns on the orangey to which it is attached. Due to the large glass frontage the gallery doesn’t feel separate from the park therefore the artists like using it. The back wall in the gallery is also naturally lit from a glass panel in the roof. This allows art works on the walls to be viewed from the gardens, minimising reflections from the glass.
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