Viewing Rooms is an architecture distilled to its essence: space, light, movement, material. Set in a quiet clearing on a wooded property in rural Ontario, Canada, this art gallery explores a spatial narrative grounded in perception and introspection. The brief—to design three distinct yet interconnected spaces for landscape, sculpture, and photography—provides a compelling starting point for the project.
Upon approach, visitors encounter a singular, monolithic volume. Its dark, mineral, pigmented-concrete façade complements the earth and bark tones of the surrounding forest. Its surface appears hewn from a single mass, a structure at once timeless and abstract. A horizontal datum line, 2 meters high, divides the form: above, in dialogue with the site’s trees, three vertical chimney-like elements rise from the roof, calibrated to pull diffuse daylight deep into the gallery; below, five horizontal concave bands are carved out of the base, lending the volume a more human scale. These undulations suggest geological time—stone shaped by wind and water—or something more immediate, like the imprint of fingertips pressed into soft clay.
The architecture unfolds as a linear procession of three spaces—two interior and one exterior. The journey begins in the landscape room, a square, outdoor antechamber enclosed on all sides but open to the sky. A circular void in the ceiling captures shifting light and weather, forming a meditative threshold between natural and built worlds.
A pivot door leads from this sky-lit chamber into a low, compressed entry, where visitors pass between two thickened volumes housing storage. This threshold marks the entrance to the rectangular sculpture gallery. Two vertical lightwells punctuate the ceiling, their soft curvature diffusing light and extending the perception of height.
Another narrowed threshold—mirroring the first and enclosing a WC and kitchenette—guides movement into the final space: the photography room. A perfect square, it holds a single lightwell placed at the far end, casting diffuse illumination that makes the display wall feel infinite. The room’s rounded corners dissolve spatial rigidity, leaving only the presence of art, light, and the quiet act of seeing.
The sequence of rooms is not just spatial but sensorial. The architecture plays an active role in shaping this progression—guiding movement, framing light, and modulating atmosphere. Through clarity and restraint, it supports a quiet, attentive encounter with the works on display, heightening awareness of both art and environment.
Project Team: Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Aleris Rodgers, Mo Bayati, Anvi Nagpal; renderings by Luminous Creative Imaging (Interiors) & zytro (exterior); ART DIRECTION BY ljubodrag andric
