Kingtson City Art Gallery

Kingston City Council brought us in to expand and renovate an existing gallery space, folding in adjacent staff offices as part of a broader rethink of how the building worked.

The project called for a careful balance, improving the functionality of a working civic space without stripping it of its character.

The old council safe, once home to whatever valuables a local government accumulates over the years, found a new life as a digital media room. And despite conventional gallery wisdom favouring controlled artificial light, the decision was made to keep the beautiful north-facing windows, a choice that gives the space a warmth and connection to the outside world that a blacked-out gallery could never have.