The brief was to convert an existing chapel in a darlinghurst terrace into a gallery space for five piece of unconventional, flamboyant furniture pieces designed by the Memphis Group in the 80s. 

In order to create a gallery space for these unusual furniture pieces, I began to identify the key aspects the Memphis Group embodied and reinterpreted them into a larger architectural gesture.

Upon entry into the building, visitors are drawn into the space my 600mm tall LED screens that move a palette of colour (chosen directly from the colours used in the Memphis designs) around the fluid partition walls. The screens begin to fade one approaching the exhibition room at the rear of the terrace. The walls in this area are solely composed of 200mm wide cardboard tubers that have been sliced and fixed to the walls. Painted in heavy duty white wall paint, it is almost unrecognisable that the walls are cladded in cardboard tubes. This adheres to the Memphis ideology, where cheap material and laminate would be used to impose a polished, expensive appeal.

A thin skylight has been positioned at the point that the partition walls touch the ceiling. This enables daily natural light to stream down the curved movement of the tubes to accentuate the abstract form.