Louise T Blouin Institute

Building exterior and James Turrell light installation.

Project details

• Project Name: Louise T Blouin Institute
• Client: Louise T Blouin Foundation
• Project Type: Architectural and Interior Design
• Principal Designer/s: Simon Dance
• Design Team: Borgos Dance
• Contractor/s:
  • Phase I (softstrip): Lancsville Construction Ltd.
  • Phase II (structural/fit-out): Delcon Construction Ltd
• Date of commencement of project: April 2004 (construction: April 2005)
• Date of completion of project: October 2006
• Location of site: London
• Site Area: 1300sqm
• Built-up Area: 3,250 sqm

Borgos Dance has sought to reinstate the original open plan nature of this 1920s warehouse in order to maximise the space available for exhibiting art for the Louise T Blouin Foundation.

The ground floor houses the main public areas, including a triple height space, exhibition space and a courtyard cafe that are open to the public.

The upper floors are a combination of flexible spaces and office suites for the Foundation's activities.

Entrance lobby and triple height exhibition space.

Borgos Dance began by unravelling the changes that had been made over the years and imagining a more symmetrical and ordered facade.

This entailed rebuilding load-bearing masonry piers and arches over the windows to create purer and more balanced elevations.

A completely new structure had to be inserted to form generous and environmentally controlled spaces required in the brief.

In particular, the reconstruction of floors and internal structures supported by new internal foundations needed considerable care in the design and execution to achieve a successful outcome.

With Arup, the team removed all columns from the ground floor, using Macalloy steel bars to suspend the lightweight concrete floors from two 27 metre long by 2.5 metre high roof trusses.

Load transfer to these new structures was achieved by jack stressing the hanging structure into position and relieving the load from the ground floor columns.

Second floor and skylight.

The main entrance at ground floor is situated at the north of the building. It leads into a 10.5-metre high lobby on ground level, naturally lit on two sides and covered by a grid of beams that can support artwork loads.

A diagonal wall forms the third side of the triangular triple height space. This area is connected to the rest of the building by a three-storey high glass screen.

Passing through 3.5-metre high double doors, there follows a 4-metre high 465 sq m gallery space, book-ended by two large artwork walls.

To one side there is a sky-lit cafe, where formerly there was a little used and derelict outdoor courtyard.

The first and second floors include the offices of the LTB Foundation, but will also be used for other activities relating to the Foundation's projects.

Two translucent glass light wells in the roof are surrounded by an opaque polycarbonate screen that will be lit on all four sides at night and provide natural light during the day. The building's plant is concealed behind this screen.

Courtyard cafe.

One of the challenges in creating such open and flexible spaces was incorporating all of the elements necessary for exhibitions such as lighting, acoustic treatment, security, power, data, heating, cooling and humidity control. In this sense the project has been an exercise in discretion and concealment.

A new ground floor - displacement floor, has been constructed which incorporates an air conditioning supply system through bespoke manufactured concrete floor outlets.

The acoustic requirements have been incorporated using a special ceiling render system, the services and facilities (including AV equipment) are fed through riser cores, and fan-coil ventilation units on the upper floors have been incorporated beneath each window.

A purpose made window treatment using architectural light fittings, black-out and glare blinds has been designed to give a discreet but effective lighting and environmental control solution which continues throughout the building.

All the blinds are automated and respond to the sun, with every window having black-out capability and forming part of the permanent building-wide James Turrell light installation that is integrated into the design.

Credits

• Text: Borgos Dance
• Photographs: Helene Binet / Richard Davies
• Compiled and Edited by Varun M Ajani