Gainsborough House, the childhood home of the celebrated British artist Thomas Gainsborough, is about to reopen in Sudbury, Suffolk. The space, which has been undergoing thorough refurbishment and redesign by architecture studio ZMMA, is now the largest gallery in its region, and is set to become a key cultural destination for it. The refresh encompasses a new three-storey building, to house an entrance area, as well as four modern gallery spaces.
Gainsborough House reopening
To match the area's architectural language and the existing buildings on site, the new structure was composed in locally made brick and flint. These contemporary spaces are complemented by the careful restoration of the original, Grade I-listed late medieval, Georgian and Regency townhouse where the painter lived. As part of the complex, the open glass-faced Watering Place café and terrace offer connections to the garden as well as a place for visitors and the local community to gather, sit and relax to enjoy and take in the scenery.
'The powerful connection between the landscape surrounding Sudbury and its representation in Gainsborough’s work inspired us to create a new gallery building whose clay and flint materials are brought directly from Gainsborough’s Suffolk landscape. From the expanded museum campus, visitors will enjoy long views of the countryside beyond the town’s rooftops. Sudbury’s silk-weaving led us to make brickwork façades that appear woven, and to silk-line a new gallery for Gainsborough’s grandest canvasses. Gainsborough’s home has been reimagined and enriched to make complementary historic and modern settings for the museum’s displays,' says Adam Zombory-Moldovan, project director at ZMMA.
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