Munkenbeck + Marshall

Roche Court is a Grade II listed building constructed for Lord Nelson in 1806. The setting is used as a sculpture park containing works by the most famous sculptors of the 20th century, including Anthony Gormley, Allen Jones and Barbara Hepworth. The brief was to build a sculpture gallery against the kitchen garden wall that runs between the house and the orangery. This is a working gallery, not a museum: all the art is for sale. The jury viewed the solution devised by the architects as ‘…a sublime essay in calm modernism, happy in its historic context. The clever cross-section in both directions results in a roof which is as visually light as possible. Although a small project, this is Architecture with a big A. The new gallery demonstrates why proportion and quality of execution are the chief criteria in the debate about contextualism. In a setting where it would have been easy to resort to reproduction or pastiche, the client instead commissioned an example of sensitive contemporary architecture that cannot be bettered.’