The Project
In 1916, Charleston, a farmhouse on the edge of the South Downs, became a home and rural meeting place for the writers, painters and intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury group. It remained a family home until 1980, when the Charleston Trust was formed, to manage and conserve Charleston for the benefit of the public.
Working in collaboration with conservation specialists Julian Harrap Architects, who have restored Charleston's historic barns, Jamie Fobert Architects have created a new-build Exhibition Centre. The restored barns and new building house an auditorium, education spaces, a set of new galleries and a café, representing a sizable addition to the existing farmhouse and support spaces at Charleston. The new spaces opened to the public in September 2018.
From the outset of the project, the sensitive nature of this rural site on the edge of the South Downs was a primary concern. Estate, local farmers and the town of Lewes were all included in consultation. We set out to create a coherent sequence of spaces that remains true to the feel of Charleston and its rural context.
Constructed in cross-laminated timber, our new building makes reference to the wooden frames of Charleston’s historic barns yet employs modern fabrication techniques. The gallery space is made up of a set of volumes, similar in scale to the main living spaces of Charleston's farmhouse. This gives a sense of balance and familiarity between the farmhouse and the new building and it means that the gallery is perfectly suited to displaying the domestically-scaled paintings of the Bloomsbury Group.
Once fundraising is complete, the roof of the Exhibition Centre will be covered in large Corten tiles, continuing the robust, agricultural aesthetic, and referencing the distinctive ochre colouring of the historic clay roof tiles and brick. The building is positioned to frame a new external space, which in character is very much like the adjacent historic farmyard.
Photography © Alun Callendar and © Axel Hesslenberg