Private Gallery, Somerset - Feilden Fowles

Private Gallery

Somerset, UK
2022

A scheme for a new domestic art gallery on a farm in Somerset. The proposed gallery is intended to provide space for the client to display artwork within their own estate. The scheme also intends to place sustainability at the heart of the project by setting ambitious environmental targets. The new buildings integrate with and extend the existing landscape of the estate, significantly increasing biodiversity and allowing opportunity for re-wilding. The buildings are conceived of as artworks in their own right, sculptural forms that are ‘of’ the landscape rather than simply ‘in’ it – fitting vessels for the treasures displayed within.

Landscape-Led Approach

The perception and interpretation of art is inherently subjective and evolving. How a work is experienced can shift with context, influenced by many factors over varying timescales. Just as natural light changes throughout the day and seasons, the landscape transforms with weather, seasonal shifts, and time. The gallery provides a space where artworks are experienced within this ever-changing framework, appearing differently depending on the time of day, season, and environmental conditions. Designed to embed in the site, it is shaped by diverse landscapes—from woodland and wetland to meadows of tall grasses. A landscape-led approach guides the scheme and maximises biodiversity.

Drawing from Local Rural Vernacular

The scheme references the local historic farmsteads which typically develop as collections of buildings arranged around a central courtyard. The material palette speaks a language of layered stone and rammed earth walls that resonate with the rural character of Somerset. Materials are drawn from the site and its surroundings — rammed earth dug from the ground itself, together with locally sourced limestones including Coral Rag, Pisolite, and Under Oolite Rock. These are composed to create a gradient of weight and texture, shifting from heavier, darker tones at the base to lighter finishes above.

A Building of the Ground

The gallery settles into the land, its form partly sunken to anchor it in the Somerset landscape. Walls built from materials found in the site itself root the architecture in context, while reducing waste. Designed to Passivhaus principles, it aspires to exemplary energy performance, minimising heat loss and harnessing the earth to regulate temperature. The result is a calm, stable environment for art. More than a container, the building becomes part of the landscape – a sustainable, sculptural presence shaped by and belonging to its place.