NORD Architecture

GIA 2002 was the first exhibition design commission completed by NORD.
For NORD the challenge was to create a complete environment within an archetypal white walled gallery space. We were interested in making an audience experience that was inclusive to all viewers and to make this experience a priority over the individual pieces of work displayed.
The first move was to line, to 2 metre height, the entire gallery space in reclaimed timber from a local church that had recently been stripped out. This created an enclosed yet familiar environment in clear contrast to the existing neutral space.

Against this backdrop a series of display structures were placed each designed to present the selected architectural project from a different perspective. A ‘forest’ of light boxes display conventional architectural photography, a series of wall hung shelves display a full set of construction drawings for each project (ranging from over a hundred drawings for a new build arts centre to a handful of details for an award winning domestic extension), a wall of slide viewers illustrate the view from the user’s perspective and floor mounted light boxes show fragments of materiality.