In 2015 we hosted an invited design competition for an installation using ceramic products in response to the theme of material, perceptual and building transformation, in the lead up to the part closure of the Royal Academy building prior to a major redevelopment designed by David Chipperfield Architects. SO? Architecture and Ideas beat three other emerging design practices – OS31, Bureau de Change and Scott Whitby Studio – with their proposal. 

SO’s installation created a dialogue with the 19th century facade and converted an under-utilised threshold area into a much needed public space. Reconsidering the traditional use of ceramics, SO? Architecture and Ideas based its design on Muqarnas – a form of ornamental tiled vaulting commonly found in Islamic architecture. The studio interpreted the decorative typology's composition of tessellating geometric volumes as a series of triangular prisms of various lengths. The ceramic tiles transform from day to night – illuminating in the evening hours and allowing visitors to stop and enjoy the plush Mayfair surroundings.

It became a site for public programming that included drawing workshops, poetry readings and a stage for an acrobatic workshop.
Graphic Design was by Morse Studio that included a beautiful opening invitation.
The installation was funded by Turkishceramics

All images copyright Hufton + Crow