When photographer Koto Bolofo first visited London’s Commonwealth Institute in 2011, he found a forgotten architectural relic in the centre of London. Shrouded by park trees, overgrown with wild strawberry plants and home to a family of foxes, ‘it was like a dormant cathedral,’ he remembers. ‘Despite the buzz of the traffic whizzing past on Kensington High Street, you wouldn’t even know it was there. That was the strange thing.’
The visit had followed a call from his long-time friend, design entrepreneur Sophie Conran, who is also the daughter of Design Museum founder and trustee Sir Terence Conran. ‘She said, “You know the Commonwealth Institute?’’’ says Bolofo, retelling the conversation. ‘Well, my dad’s bought it and he’s going to turn it into the new Design Museum. Would you like to photograph the renovation?’
South African-born, London-based Bolofo, famed for his award-winning fashion photography and films, was apprehensive about taking on his first ever architectural project, but agreed to a test run. At the time, the 1962 Grade II*-listed building, just south of Holland Park, had been empty for more than a decade. It was yet to be publicly announced as the museum’s new home and it would be a year before ground broke on its £83m John Pawson-designed facelift.‘I was doing 8-12 second exposures, which I’d never done before, so I wasn’t even sure the pictures were going to come out,’ Bolofo remembers. Happily, the Design Museum were thrilled with his ‘non-architectural’ approach and so he spent the next five years revisiting the site every few months in order to track its transformation.
‘I fell in love with the building,’ he says. ‘I photographed it like I would photograph a woman – for me, it had so much femininity. The lines, the curves, there is absolutely nothing masculine about it.’
As the construction team dug out the foundations to reinforce the structure and stripped the building back to its skeleton, Bolofo captured the still moments in between; the rhythmic twists of the roof trusses, the empty walkways and the piles of debris illuminated by shafts of ethereal light. ‘I know nothing about construction; I had to use my instinct and my knowledge of form in order to document it. It was like watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis,’ he says.
With the butterfly now almost fully emerged, the finishing touches are being made to the museum’s interior, while, on the second floor, a dramatic cafe and restaurant space is promising to steal the show. ‘Because it’s such a significant and important building, there is very little we can actually do in terms of design in the interior,’ explains Jay Osgerby of Barber & Osgerby, the design studio tasked with fitting out the restaurant interior. Instead, the duo set about creating a scheme that made the most of the restaurant’s spectacular views outwards across the tree tops of Holland Park and inwards towards the cavernous atrium. For this purpose, the duo developed what they describe as ‘quiet and refined’ pieces of exclusive furniture and lighting that will let the view do the talking. A new wooden chair and a range of upholstery is in development with Vitra, while a number of lighting pieces are being produced by Flos.
The menu, provided by Sir Terence’s food, wine and hotel group Prescott & Conran, will ensure that the whole operation lives up to its founding father’s exacting standards. ‘Seeing this quite remarkable project on the cusp of completion makes me tremble with excitement and anticipation,’ beams Conran, who cites the museum as his most rewarding achievement. ‘It really does feel like our moment has arrived, and seeing the Design Museum move to this magnificent building demonstrates just how important design has become to industry in this country. It makes my rather long career absolutely worthwhile because it is putting design at the very heart of British creativity.’
As originally featured in the October 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*211)
Pictured left: the hyperbolic parabolic copper roof. Right: on the brick and concrete former Commonweal Institute building, designed by RMJM in 1962, as it looked in May 2012
Pictured left: the copper clad roof is held up by an elegant concrete rib structure, adding drama to the space beneath. The restored concrete elements remain visible in the design, as well as the original wood wool panels. Right: the building’s diamond shaped plan was punctured by a round internal atrium at this height. This opening has now been redesigned by Pawson in a rectangular form
Sir Terence Conran, photographed by Bolofo in front of the museum on 9 August 2016
INFORMATION
Ahead of going on permanent display in the new Design Museum’s atrium in November, Koto Bolofo’s photographs will appear at 34 Cork Street for ’Wallpaper* magazine is 20! Construction Sight’, an exhibition to celebrate our 20th-birthday issue, in collaboration with Cork Street Galleries.
’Wallpaper* magazine is 20! Construction Sight’ is on view through to 8 October, Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm
For more information on Koto Bolofo’s work, visit his website
Photography: Koto Bolofo
ADDRESS
34 Cork Street, Mayfair, W1S 3NU
-
ICON 4x4 goes EV, giving their classic Bronco-based restomod an electric twistThe EV Bronco is ICON 4x4’s first foray into electrifying its range of bespoke vintage off-roaders and SUVs
-
‘Dressed to Impress’ captures the vivid world of everyday fashion in the 1950s and 1960sA new photography book from The Anonymous Project showcases its subjects when they’re dressed for best, posing for events and celebrations unknown
-
Inside Camperlab’s Harry Nuriev-designed Paris store, a dramatic exercise in contrastThe Crosby Studios founder tells Wallpaper* the story behind his new store design for Mallorcan shoe brand Camperlab, which centres on an interplay between ‘crushed concrete’ and gleaming industrial design
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate BritainIn his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desireIn a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
