GAD Editorial · Published · · English study · Chinese summary · Study dated 2026-10-05
For 6a architects, an existing building can supply more than a shell to retain. It can offer a sequence of rooms, traces of occupation and material clues that shape a new programme. Founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001, the practice works across cultural, residential, educational and mixed-use projects. Its official introduction describes an approach informed by construction traditions and social histories. Two London art projects show what that means spatially. Practice introduction
Raven Row: different histories, one visit
Raven Row opened in 2009 in Spitalfields. The project combines eighteenth-century houses with a later concrete-framed office building, creating contemporary galleries alongside historic interiors. New rooms at the rear and older rooms towards the street do not ask visitors to experience art in identical conditions. Their differences become part of the institution’s architectural range. Raven Row
The useful precedent is the connection between these environments. Retaining an ornate room creates different curatorial possibilities from constructing an unobstructed contemporary gallery. A successful conversion must allow both to function without making the route confusing or turning the historic rooms into incidental circulation. When studying the plan, compare the dimensions, entrances and daylight conditions of each room before assuming that more exhibition area automatically produces a better exhibition experience.
The practice also designed small-scale elements, including a sandcast bronze door knob for Raven Row. Such components remind readers that adaptive reuse is experienced through contact as well as composition. The handle is an everyday point of negotiation between the visitor and the building; it need not imitate an earlier period to belong to a carefully considered whole. Product record
South London Gallery: expansion as a sequence
The 2010 South London Gallery extension adds gallery accommodation, a café, an artist’s flat and education space through three interventions. Rather than treating expansion as one large replacement building, it turns the institution into a connected sequence of inside and outside spaces. Different activities can occur alongside one another. South London Gallery
For a growing arts organisation, this raises a valuable briefing question: does every new function need the same opening hours, acoustic separation or relationship to the street? A café, education room and artist residence have distinct thresholds. Drawing those relationships can be more informative than beginning with the total floor area. The architectural task is to make the institution understandable while allowing its parts to operate with appropriate independence.
What to look for in the details
A 6a precedent study should move between the urban block and the object held in the hand. Record what was retained, where a new connection was made and how a material transition helps the user understand it. The practice is particularly relevant to cultural projects whose identity depends on accumulated histories. Its work suggests that continuity is not achieved by making everything look old; it can emerge from giving existing differences a coherent and usable future.