Young architects Alex Bank, Sam Casswell and Tom Graham have won Hauser & Wirth’s competition to design a £25,000 shed in the backyard of the gallery’s Somerset complex.
Their winning proposal,‘The Garden Rooms’, will replace an existing concrete and glass structure attached to the gallery’s Maltings studio building. The new shed, which will host artists during residencies, stands apart from the converted maltings to create a dialogue with the garden space.
‘Small buildings can really have a big impact and contain a lot of meaning for something so modest,’ says Bank, who shares a £1,000 prize with colleagues Casswell and Graham for winning the competition.
Alice Workman, director of Hauser & Wirth Somerset, adds: ‘“The Garden Rooms” stood out for its modesty, yet imagination, which will allow it to be a truly inspirational space for artists.’
The winning design saw off competition from six other teams of young architects, including South Korean studio SGHS’ ‘Homo Faber’s Room’ proposal and ME & SAM’s ‘The Shed Project’ entry. ‘The Light Box’ – conceived by Coleen O’Boyle, Nick Keen, Holly Barker and George Bister – and Jonathan Chan’s ‘The Shed’ were among other finalists.
Judging the competition were architecture critic Justin McGuirk, writer Niall Hobhouse and artist Richard Wentworth. Edward Workman, Hauser & Wirth’s director of global property, chaired the panel.
