Conservation & Heritage Issue 50 Winter 2025/Spring 2026 - Flipbook - Page 99
The Schroder Galleries: Adaptive Reuse as Conservation
Strategy in 2025
When the Holburne approached Eric Parry Architects in
2022 about accommodating the Schroder family collection—
one of the finest private holdings of Renaissance silverware,
maiolica, and Old Master paintings in the UK—the brief called
not for expansion into new ground but for reassessment of
existing fabric. The solution converted back-of-house spaces
at lower-ground level and restored a former office at firstfloor level to gallery use, adding 128 square metres of public
display space. This approach aligns with contemporary
heritage and architectural practice, which recognises that
adapting existing buildings is often more sustainable than
constructing anew.
Access to the new gallery required enhancing the decorum
of the existing circulation spaces, achieved through a
refurbished Portland stone staircase with painted metalwork
that echoes the heritage character of the upper levels. At
lower-ground level, a more generous circulation route was
created by an open hallway running along the centre of the
plan, mirroring the ground floor and reinforcing its axial
organisation. Additional display areas now showcase objects
from the museum’s collection. Works to the lower ground
level transformed former peripheral, functional spaces into
integral parts of the museum’s public offer and continuity
of material language embeds new interventions within
the building, balancing contemporary needs with existing
heritage values.
Designing an Intimate Treasure Chamber
At lower-ground level, former art storage and ancillary
spaces have become the Schroder Gallery—conceived as an
intimate treasure chamber for Renaissance decorative arts.
The architectural concept is deliberately restrained, creating
an immersive environment that foregrounds the collection
itself.
First Floor: Reversibility in Practice
At first-floor level, a former office was returned to its previous
function as gallery space—demonstrating reversibility, a
principle increasingly central to heritage practice. Historic
timber flooring was restored in situ rather than replaced,
preserving both authenticity and embodied carbon. New
environmental conditioning systems were integrated within
joinery linings that reference adjacent historic gallery spaces.
Secondary glazing improves thermal performance.
Fabric-lined walls create neutral backdrops for paintings,
while bespoke cases, developed by exhibition designer Real
Studios, finished in deep blue, enhance the lustre of silver and
ceramics. An acoustic plaster ceiling softens sound, lending
the galleries a greater sense of intimacy. End-grain oak
flooring maintains continuity with the galleries above, while
stained oak wall linings discreetly conceal the environmental
systems essential to modern exhibition spaces.
Above, earliest sketch of the Holburne Museum proposal
by Eric Parry of the architectural concept of the 2011 extension
Above, view of Schroder Gallery
photography by Dirk Lindner for Eric Parry Architects
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Conservation & Heritage Journal
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