MAST, led by founder Vladislav Gaiduk, has completed the new Gary Tatintsian Gallery in Dubai Design District (D3). Occupying a 338 m² former commercial unit, the gallery was designed as a flexible exhibition space capable of accommodating formats ranging from painting to large-scale installations.
The original L-shaped plan was reorganised as a rectangular volume. The new layout includes two exhibition halls, a centrally positioned office, a separate museum room and storage facilities. Rather than dividing the gallery into a sequence of enclosed rooms, MAST removed the existing internal partitions and developed the interior as a single continuous volume.
This approach responds directly to the gallery's curatorial programme. The exhibition spaces needed to remain neutral enough for different artists and media while providing sufficient scale for larger works.
“Art should never feel confined. Large-scale works need generous space to fully reveal themselves,” says Vladislav Gaiduk.
None of the new gallery walls reaches the ceiling. As a result, the different functional areas remain visually and spatially connected within the original volume, while the walls themselves provide the necessary surfaces for displaying artworks. Openings above the partitions also allow light to move through the space and allow the overall scale of the gallery to remain perceptible from different points within it.
One of the main architectural considerations was the existing fully glazed retail façade. Instead of covering the storefront to create conventional closed exhibition walls, MAST set the new partitions back from the glazing. The resulting gap forms a circulation route along the perimeter of the gallery and establishes a transitional zone between the street and the exhibition spaces.
From outside, the glazed façade offers only partial views into the gallery. Visitors can see light passing through the upper openings and fragments of the interior without having a complete view of the exhibition. The storefront therefore retains its connection to the street without turning the gallery into a fully exposed display window.
“We deliberately chose not to reveal everything at once. Visitors can sense the exhibition from the street, but to fully experience the artworks they have to enter the gallery. That moment of discovery became part of the architectural concept,” Gaiduk explains.
Inside, the two main exhibition halls are conceived as evenly illuminated white spaces, while the museum room introduces a deliberately different atmosphere. It is positioned behind a monumental partition with an oversized door that marks the entrance and distinguishes it from the rest of the gallery.
Here, MAST replaced the uniform lighting of the main halls with subdued accent illumination. The walls are clad in raw MDF panels finished in a deep brick tone, creating a darker, more focused setting for displaying artworks. The architects cite the National Museum of Qatar and Louvre Abu Dhabi as references for the project, particularly for their approach to creating a museum-like atmosphere within a contemporary exhibition environment.
The contrast between the white halls and the museum room creates two distinct exhibition conditions within the same architectural system: an open, adaptable background for changing installations and a more enclosed space with its own material and lighting identity.
Furniture throughout the project has been kept to a minimum. In the centrally located office, the only permanent pieces are two custom-made shelving units designed by MAST to store catalogues and documentation. This reduction of fixed elements leaves the majority of the floor area available for exhibition use and allows the gallery to be reorganised as its programme changes.
The inaugural exhibition demonstrates how the architecture works with artworks of different scales and characters. Geometric paintings by Peter Halley interact with the proportions and linear structure of the gallery, while Tony Matelli's hyperrealistic sculpture introduces an almost theatrical presence into the otherwise restrained interior.
Rather than designing individual rooms around a specific exhibition, MAST has created an architectural system intended to support successive curatorial configurations. With a limited number of interventions — freestanding walls, controlled lighting, a perimeter circulation route and a materially distinct museum room — MAST has transformed an irregular commercial unit into a gallery that can evolve with its programme.
About MAST
MAST is a multidisciplinary architecture studio founded by architect Vladislav Gaiduk. The studio works across architecture and interior design, creating residential, cultural and commercial projects. Its work has received Russian and international awards and has been featured in leading architecture and design publications.
Architecture Studio
MAST | https://mast.archi | @mast.archi
Founder & Principal Architect
Vladislav Gaiduk
Photography
Nikita Subbotin | @studiolandon
Gary Tatintsian Gallery Dubai | Dubai Design District (D3), Dubai, UAE
