Dezeen Magazine

Bastian gallery's London outpost designed by David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield Architects completes London outpost of Bastian gallery

David Chipperfield Architects has completed the London branch of art gallery Bastian, finishing its all-white interiors with grey stone detailing.

Displaying a selection of contemporary art pieces, this is the first international outpost of Bastian, which until now it has been exclusively based in Berlin.

Bastian gallery's London outpost designed by David Chipperfield Architects

The 90-square-metre gallery takes over the basement and ground floor of a 20th-century townhouse in London's affluent Mayfair neighbourhood, which formerly served as a retail unit. David Chipperfield Architects has overhauled the site to include an exhibition space, private showroom, and small office.

Passersby at street level have clear sightlines to the rear of the gallery's ground floor, where picture frames currently run along the centre of the wall. A staircase with a glass balustrade leads down to the lower level, with slim blocks of white marble integrated into its treads.

Walls have been painted white to provide a "clean and ambient" backdrop to the artworks, while the floor has been clad in pale grey limestone. The front facade has also been freshened up with a coat of white paint, contrasting against the gallery's name which is dark blue.

The gallery's inaugural exhibition will showcase over 60 Polaroid pictures taken by American artist Andy Warhol, featuring influential figures such as Jean-Michael Basquiat, John Lennon, David Hockney, and a handful of self-portraits. It will run until April 13 2019, after which the gallery will start focusing more on modern and post-war German art.

Bastian gallery's London outpost designed by David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield Architects also designed Bastian's Berlin base, which opened back in 2007. The building overlooks the city's Kupfergraben canal and features a pale brick facade and recessed windows.

This is a very small-scale project for the practice, which last year finished a major expansion of London's Royal Academy of Arts, and made a grand new entrance to Selfridge's department store. It is also in the last phases of constructing a huge museum in China – set to open later in this year, the building has been rendered in a rust-red hue to match the colour of the clay earth in the surrounding hillsides.

Photography is by Luke Andrew Walker.