Gumuchdjian Architects

Hauser & Wirth

with Annabelle Selldorf
Piccadilly, London

In 1922 Sir Edwin Lutyens defiantly took the Wren Church of St James as his inspiration for his Piccadilly Bank. In 2002 the pioneering Zurich based Hauser & Wirth chose the building as their flagship London Contemporary Art Gallery.

Annabelle Selldorf of New York, their long-standing architect, invited us to collaborate. It was to be a painstaking process of intricate heritage negotiations, design modification and restoration of the dilapidated and mutilated building.
We proposed the mutation of the building into a ‘hybrid’ of its original 1922 condition, subtly integrating modern interventions into the fabric of the building and providing the necessary services and structural connections for a contemporary art gallery that runs a rolling programme of new installations from contemporary artists.

The space is designed for flexibility and to facilitate a rotating programme of installations and exhibitions.

(photos: Andrew Smart/AC Cooper Studio; Mirjam Devriend)
The panelling of the main Banking Hall was restored, adapted to contain services and modified to fill in areas where panelling previously either did not exist or was damaged.

In the 1970’s the original Lutyens ceiling plasterwork was over-painted in lurid colours and partly gilded. The ceiling was duly restored to its original condition but with new structural and electrical connections integrated into the plasterwork.

To the left an exhibition of Berlinde der Bruyckere and to the right Pippoliti Rist dramatically projects an auto portrait video into the restored white ceiling rose.
Upstairs at the gallery had been entirely modified with floors covered and damaged, new partitions installed within the original ‘American Room’ and all ceilings covered or damaged by modern cabling that was surface fixed to the ceilings and paneling.

Here the American Room is paneled by a temporary white wall to hang works by Guillermo Kuitca

(photo: Andrew Smart/AC Cooper Studio)
Even the vaults of the Bank are used and made ready for installations.

Left to Right installations by Roman Singer and Anri Sala

(photos: Andrew Smart/AC Cooper Studio)

All photos courtesy of the Hauser & Wirth Gallery.