Move over Serpentine, there’s a new gallery pavilion in town… This one’s south of the river and is positioned in front of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Young Bermondsey-based architectural practice IF_DO beat off 75 other contenders in the competition— launched by the gallery and the London Festival of Architecture—to design a contemporary response to the original Sir John Soane-designed building and its garden setting. And all within a modest construction budget of £100,000.
It’s no mean feat to grapple with the great Sir John Soane whilst at the same time being architecturally innovative and also keeping the often-conservative locals happy (for a while Margaret Thatcher was a Dulwich Village resident). But IF_DO have risen to the challenge with playful aplomb.
Their lively open-sided pavilion, which was unveiled today (30 May) and opens to the public on 2 June, is constructed from moveable mirrored screens and panels. These provide multiple reflected perspectives of the gallery building and grounds, both of which are much beloved by your correspondent who, as a young post-graduate worked as a Dulwich Picture Gallery volunteer under the directorship of the late lamented Giles Waterfield.
Apart from its good looks, the pavilion is also an infinitely flexible space that, for its five-month lifespan, will host multiple events for all generations. Tucked within the structure’s sleek mirrored back is a well-appointed bar that is to be run by the team behind another of this writer’s favourite south London haunts: The Camberwell Arms. Now that’s something that Mrs Thatcher and her famously bibulous consort Denis would undoubtedly have approved of.