RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 nomination. When it came to sourcing bricks for Damien Hirst’s award-winning Newport Street Gallery, Caruso St John Architects called on European Building Materials.
We worked closely with the architects to source 3 special bricks for the 3,500m2 Vauxhall gallery which provides a new home for works from Damien Hirst’s own art collection, with admission free to all. The new gallery won a RIBA National Award in 2016.
Three purpose-built former theatrical set painting workshops were unified into a terrace by new buildings clad in a matching pale red semi-glazed Gloucestershire brick. We sourced this brick from Northcot Brick, together with a darker brown bespoke brick to mark the entrance piers and soffit.
Inside, a suite of 6 galleries is reached by three new stairwells detailed in complex and immaculately crafted white brickwork cylinders. The assymetric brick walls were constructed on-site, with ceiling bricks inset into precast concrete slabs offsite.
We sourced the Oslo Pearl White bricks from German manufacturer Röben. Highly wrought timber staircases are recessed into the brickwork with curving inset concrete handrails, creating a crafted quality rarely seen today.
