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Cultural foundation
Monolith Archive
A climate-stable archive and reading room for a photography foundation, behind a single wall of cast stone.
Year
2022
Location
London, United Kingdom
Area
2,900 m²
Status
Completed
The project
Photography — Studio archive
The archive
The collection needs a steady 16 °C and 40% humidity. The thick cast-stone envelope does most of that work on its own, so the building runs with a fraction of the plant a conventional archive would need.
The reading room
Above the vaults, a long reading room is lit from one side through deep vertical fins. Readers get even north light on the table and a view of the street, while the prints stay out of direct sun.
The public ground floor holds a small gallery that changes four times a year.
