Architecture + Brick | A Spacious Brick Studio for Anish Kapoor in London’s South End

LONDON — Turner Prize winning artist, Anish Kapoor, a man famous for his Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago has a whopping seven studio spaces inside an old industrial district in south London.

Architects Michael Casey and Victoria Fierro (Caseyfierro studio) recently completed a five-year project renovating an old dairy factory into a block of studios for Kapoor. It’s unassuming from the outside. The architects added a large window, but beyond that the studio jealously guards its industrial roots. We imagine that part of this is for privacy, but Casey told Dezeen that Kapoor wanted the building to retain its original brick, paint and plaster. The humble (but honest) walls are touched up in places with original drawings by Kapoor.

Casey said the artist wanted places that were conducive to work instead of being “gallery spaces.” That can be seen in the cavernous renovation in one building, in which the architects removed a floor, giving Kapoor a 9-meter high room to work in. Each room was built for a specific purpose. In the video linked to this post, Casey said some rooms are for form sculpting, others are for surface finishing. They are joined by photography and painting studios.

Caseyfierro Architects was founded in London in 2006. They focus on residential projects, studios and art galleries, according to their biography. Prior to 2006 Michael Casey was an associate at Herzog & de Meuron Ag. During the eleven years as a collaborator he was the team leader responsible for the execution of the Swiss practices projects in the UK, which covered arts, sports, education, health and residential projects. Notably, he worked on the Tate Modern (1995-2000) and development of the extension and the Laban Dance Centre (1998-2003). He was awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2003. Victoria Fierro collaborated with Herzog & de Meuron Ag as a member of the team responsible for the execution of Tate Modern (1995- 2000) and she has experience with Skidmore Owen Merrill architects on both local authority and commercial projects.

Do you love or loathe this contemporary brick architecture? Let us know in the comments.