LONDON.- ‘The Colour Palace’ has been unveiled as the second edition of the Dulwich Pavilion at Dulwich Picture Gallery. The outcome of an open design competition organised by Dulwich Picture Gallery and the London Festival of Architecture, The Colour Palace serves as a temporary outdoor structure for summer 2019, gracing the lawns outside Sir John Soane’s iconic gallery.

This summer, the London Festival of Architecture explores ‘boundaries’ while Dulwich Picture Gallery celebrates ‘innovation’. These themes converge in The Colour Palace; a riotous, bold architectural fusion that crosses boundaries between cultural traditions, integrating art and architecture. The innovative timber structure is a feat of engineering using just one small size of timber with all the joints on show revealing the craftsmanship and structural logic. For Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Colour Palace will act as a versatile public space that will be used for a variety of creative activities for visitors of all ages – from ‘Pavilion Lates’ to neon life drawing, supper clubs, storytelling and yoga – throughout the summer. For the London Festival of Architecture, the project is an important opportunity to celebrate London’s vibrant architectural scene and to support exciting, fresh, design talent.

Pricegore and Yinka Ilori’s Colour Palace is a testament to universal themes of colour, pattern and celebration. The design finds parallels between African and European cultures to create a building that reflects the diverse, cultural experience of south east London. The Pavilion draws on many shared traditions of geometry and pattern in architecture, and the common solution of raising storage buildings on staddle stones.

Raised on monumental feet, the lightweight structure is assembled from thousands of individual pieces of hand-painted timber. The combination of these elements creates facades of bold geometric pattern that shift and merge according to viewpoint recalling the fabric markets of Lagos, Nigeria.

Internally, the Pavilion resembles a small theatre-in-the-round, and visitors can climb to a perimeter gantry held within the depth of the slender structure. The squat volume of the Pavilion is informed by the cubic composition of Soane’s Grade II* listed Dulwich Picture Gallery, next to which it sits in close and contrasting proximity.

Pricegore are an emerging architecture practice led by Dingle Price & Alex Gore who established their office in nearby Peckham 5 years ago. Situating each project within broader narratives of architectural and cultural history, their designs are collaborative and research based, leading to unexpected but relevant buildings. Yinka Ilori is a London-based multidisciplinary artist of British-Nigerian heritage, who specialises in storytelling by fusing his heritage in order to tell new stories in contemporary design.

The partnership overcame fierce competition from a field of 150 entries to win the competition, which was judged by a panel of leading architectural and cultural figures including Tom Dyckhoff (writer and broadcaster), Mary Duggan (founder, Mary Duggan Architects) and Oliver Wainwright (architecture and design critic, The Guardian). Members of the public visiting the gallery in June 2018 were also given the opportunity to have their say on the shortlisted designs.

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.