Gallery
St James’s Square comprises predominantly Georgian and Neo-Georgian architecture set around a substantial private garden, between Piccadilly and the expansive green public spaces of Green Park. For the first two hundred years of its history one of the most fashionable residential addresses in London, today its exclusivity is expressed in the prestigious nature of its commercial inhabitants.
This project creates a gallery studio with outside terrace on the top floor of a new building on the square’s north side. At the heart of the design is the idea of creating comfortable spaces for people, art and books, but also of capitalising on the quality of the light and views consequent on sixth storey elevation in so central a location, where direct sightlines extend beyond the treetops of the garden square to iconic structures in the city skyline, including the Palace of Westminster and the London Eye.
A vista extending the full breadth of the building is a defining move, its length underlined by the rhythmic beat of columns and mullions that animate the adjacent surfaces with a repeating pattern of light and shadow. The pale oak floor runs seamlessly across the floor plan. In conjunction with the white walls, ceilings, fitted cupboards and shelves, the effect is to create a calm visual context for a series of specially designed furniture pieces fabricated in fumed and bleached oak.
Project Team
Guy Dickinson
Photography
Gilbert McCarragher