Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, East Sussex

Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, East Sussex
Adam Richards Architects for Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft
Contract £1.1m. GIA 580m²

Art and craft is the subject of this museum and the architecture is a sublime way to appreciate it. A traditional barn and the former school are linked with new tiled and copper-clad buildings that also give a new entrance to the museum on the village green. Great skill ensures beautiful spaces are created out of the limitations: in one room a nave-like narrow ceiling places Eric Gill’s printing press as the altar, while air handling equipment is concealed on either side. Both Shakerish and very English, with all the quirks that implies. ‘An exquisite experience’ say the judges. And so it is.