The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery occupies a prominent location in the heart of Cork, a small city in the south of Ireland. Extended a number of times since its construction in 1724, the building has become an amalgam of different types of spaces, none suitable for contemporary or large-scale exhibits. The new design adds two new exhibition spaces and improves the gallery circulation by inserting a suspended stair to connect the existing floor levels. The new exhibition spaces are within the former courtyard and have strikingly different atmospheres. The upper gallery’s dramatically shaped roofs create an architectural space filled with natural light.

The lower gallery is quieter, with a glazed wall facing the street that can be partially or fully closed by wooden shutters, depending on the requirements of each exhibition. The existing building presented a harmonious exterior through the use of brick throughout. In the new facade, floating curved ribbons of bricks glued together to form monolithic shells articulate the contrast, as well as the harmony, of old and new. Connected through material, but distinctive in form and shape, the intervention adds another layer of history to this cultural landmark.