Ooi Botos Gallery, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Winner: Jonathan D. Solomon, AIA
Award: Merit Award for Interior Design

The owners of Ooi Botos Gallery sought a design that would be at once shocking and familiar, avant-garde and recognizable. Above all, the gallery had to be a functioning commercial space without being culturally generic or sterile. An important part of this challenge was the design of a fully opaque facade that shut the space entirely to the distraction of the gallery’s non-traditional site in the Wan Chai Wet Market, without turning it’s face away from the neighborhood. The Design accomplishes this by referencing recognizable urban idioms from the surrounding streets: the folding metal screens that shutter shops on the surrounding streets, and the curbside shrines that sit beside each building entry. The form was modeled digitally, and fabricated as a lightweight, fiberglass sheath.

Inside, a ground floor display wall cants gently towards the center of the already very long space, creating a false perspective and sense of increasing depth while at the same time providing a more advantageous viewing angle. On the loft level, a movable wall and storage cabinet allow for the flexible expansion or contraction of the gallery office. During the day-to-day operation, the wall rotates to open the office to the gallery. During special shows, it closes seamlessly and forms a display wall. During especially crowded events, the wall moves parallel to the length of the gallery, contracting and expanding the loft.

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