London Met graduates win prestigious Hauser & Wirth prize

A team of London Met architecture graduates have won a competition to design a £25,000 artists’ space in Somerset.

Date: 23 June 2015

Alex Bank, Sam Casswell and Tom Graham, who met while studying at London Metropolitan University, have defeated six teams to win the high profile commission.

Their design, The Garden Rooms, was selected by a jury which included architectural critic Justin McGuirk, artist Richard Wentworth and Hauser & Wirth director of global property Edward Workman.

Hauser & Wirth Somerset director Alice Workman said: “We were hugely impressed by the quality of all of the shortlisted finalists and I think the judges had a very tough decision.

The Garden Rooms stood out for its modesty, yet imagination, which will allow it to be a truly inspirational space for artists.”

Alex Bank said: “It’s been a real pleasure working with my colleagues and really rewarding to collaborate together. It was a lot of work, even though it’s a small building – small buildings can really have a big impact and contain a lot of meaning for something so modest.”

The Shed Project was launched by contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth, open to recent Part 3 graduates, to find ‘innovative and contemporary’ proposals for a new outbuilding to host artists during residencies at the Somerset gallery space.

The new outbuilding will replace an existing concrete and glass shed within a former maltings at the gallery’s new campus in Bruton.

Hauser & Wirth received over 100 design submissions. Four of the seven shortlisted design teams included London Met architecture graduates who had at The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture & Design in Aldgate.

Alex Bank and Sam Casswell are Design Tutors on the Architecture Studio 1 at The Cass.

The winner was announced on 20 June at a public event at the Radić Pavilion.

 

Martin Creed artwork on the side of Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Somerset