The Courtauld

Behind the palatial eighteenth-century façade, the Strand Block used to be a warren of nine irregular suites. The Courtauld Institute of Art which occupies it is the UK’s smallest university, an institute dedicated to teaching and research in art history, conservation and curating; it also holds a remarkable art collection which is open to the public. Developed through thorough extensive engagement with staff and students, and negotiated with heritage authorities, our project adapts Chambers’ idiosyncratic complex to make it a public building fit for the twenty-first century.

With the completion of Phase I in 2021, we have delivered new exhibition galleries, for the exceptional temporary exhibitions programme; opened up the previously subdivided Great Room to host the collection’s highlights; formed a new ground floor visitor reception, with a generous new stair down; carved out a large reception space in the lower ground floor vaults; upgraded the conservation studios; and created a learning studio for schools work and an object study space to offer students better access to the collections.

‘Courtauld Connects’ links the different parts of the building for the first time, bringing out the inherent clarity and generosity of Chambers’ composition. Through a balance of careful conservation and bold intervention, the layers of the building’s evolution are revealed. The new works are of this place, carefully tuned to the distinctive characteristics of Somerset House. They are of this time, too, using the possibilities of contemporary techniques and materials to make new rooms that are robust, warm and luminous. The new construction sits in taut dialogue with the inherited structure.

This is more than a building project. ‘Courtauld Connects’ is about a change of culture, from an introverted institution segregated by disciplines to a culture of internal and external collaboration crossing disciplinary borders. To support this transformation our work as architects has been historically literate, opportunistic and institutionally aware.