DAtrans Architecture Office

The gallery is located at the M50 and owned by the artist Ding Yi. Before renovation the gallery space was an old printing workshop, filled with the smell of machine oil, with the area of around 200sqm. The space on the ground floor is hidden at the corner of the four-levels building.

The client requests more floor area, so we add a new level inside the existing space. But the client also wants to have a double high space for the presentation of large-scale objects. The 'Negative Form' of Artist Rachel Whiteread inspired the birth of our idea for the gallery: the central cube takes the place of the traditional inner patio. The two-level high corridor surrounds the inner cube.

So a central courtyard is transformed to a solid form with two levels. The cube has different openable panels to open and to expand the space for display. According to the combinations of the panels the gallery wins the maximum flexibility of display.