Dulwich Picture Gallery's new summer pavilion brings a touch of Lagos to London

A vibrant splash of color has won the 2019 Dulwich Pavilion architectural competition and will be welcoming visitors to London's venerable Dulwich Picture Gallery next summer. "The Colour Palace" by architects Pricegore and Nigerian-British designer Yinka Ilori was selected from six shortlisted proposals and 150 initial entries. 

The temporary outdoor structure impresses with its lively blend of European and African cultural traditions and will be finished just in time for the London Festival of Architecture in June 2019.

"Pricegore and Yinka Ilori’s ‘Colour Palace’ is intended as a celebration of colour, pattern and light, and draws upon both European and African cultural traditions in creating a design that could be relevant to, and representative of, multicultural London," explains the project description. "Dutch wax prints on display in a Lagos market, and mirrored in London’s ‘Little Lagos’ in nearby Peckham, inspired the bold geometric pattern of the pavilion, which will create a powerful contrast alongside the more sedate and Grade II* listed gallery building, designed by Sir John Soane. Each side of the timber louvres forming the façade is painted a different colour, which in turn creates shifting layers of pattern when viewed from different perspectives around the pavilion."

"Pricegore are an emerging architecture practice led by Dingle Price and Alex Gore, and are based close to the Dulwich Picture Gallery in Peckham, south east London. Yinka Ilori is a London-based artist of Nigerian heritage, who specialises in creating furniture and other pieces that blend Nigerian traditions with contemporary design." 

"The pavilion will act as an outdoor welcome and orientation space for visitors to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, as well as a flexible public space that can be used for performances, talks and other events. The pavilion’s lightweight timber frame structure is mounted on monumental feet (formed from precast concrete drainage channels) to maintain panoramic views of Sir John Soane’s Dulwich Picture Gallery and its gardens, and also contains a gantry around its internal perimeter that acts as a viewpoint for performances or other events within. It is hoped that the pavilion will have a future life after its time at the Gallery. Thanks to its modular design, it will be possible to reconfigure the parts to create a shelter of different proportions or multiple structures of smaller scale."

"The project builds on the success of the first ever Dulwich Pavilion in 2017 - After Image by IF_DO - which was one of the highlights of that year’s London Festival of Architecture and the Gallery’s bicentenary year. As well as helping the Gallery to overcome space constraints, attract new audiences and broaden its appeal to a wider demographic, the pavilion achieved critical acclaim and won multiple awards. The project was also transformational IF_DO: their first competition win resulted in global exposure, leading to a series of exciting new commissions that have enabled the practice to triple in size."

The competition judges were Tom Dyckhoff (writer, broadcaster), Mary Duggan (founder, Mary Duggan Architects), and Oliver Wainwright (architecture critic, The Guardian). The shortlisted proposal by PUP Architects received the biggest tally in the on-site public vote.