London 2008. Adaptable architecture gallery - Taller301

The proposal starts with an island, the image of a floating island that navigates through the Thames. An island with a forest, a garden that has grown on it. The gallery couldn’t be an object placed over it, but it would be excavated from it. The spaces are thus hollowed from the rock formation creating frames that transform the experience of the city and its monuments. The islands vegetation also helps alter the perception of the gallery as it changes throughout the seasons.


Each space establishes a different relationship with the exterior. The observation patio is the central space: a courtyard open to the sky, the sun and nearby monuments. In its center lies a pool for the summer time, and a fireplace for the winter. The exhibition room/auditorium is the darkest space so that images can be projected on its walls. This space resembles closely the image constructed by Plato in his “Allegory of the Cave”.

The project reflects on the origins of architecture. The cavern is the most primitive refuge known to man, even before he began to build his environment. In some of them we can still find projections or drawing manifestations. It’s inside the cave where man first expressed its culture and made use of fire in order to keep himself alive thus reflecting his time-spirit (zeitgeist).

via: Taller301