09•2025
09•2025
New Gallery
New Gallery
EBBA have worked on the design of a new gallery space in Central London, transforming and extending a unique building to provide additional exhibition spaces and a cafe that connects to a mews street at ground level. The project is about improving the circulation and connection to the existing gallery while introducing a series of volumes that help to add well-proportioned spaces for the display of art. A lightweight linking structure helps to connect the new and old, while the solid mass of the building responds to the piece-meal qualities at the rear of the mews.
The subtle yet bold gesture of the new interlocking structure acts as a bridge to the new spaces, connecting visually to different levels of the building. The steel language is a nod to the industrial heritage of the mews and can be seen as a reference to the working nature of this part of London.
Title: New Gallery
Location: London
Year: 2025
Client: Private
Type: Cultural
Status: Concept
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08•2025
08•2025
Pulse at Houghton
Pulse at Houghton
Pulse is a new conceptual piece developed by EBBA director Benni Allan for Houghton Festival. Pulse is about capturing and transmitting the resonance of trees and how they respond to their context, drawing on advanced environmental sensors that pick up signals and translate these into a dynamic composition of light and vibrations. The result is an immersive experience completely unique to the site at Houghton Festival, where technology allows for a bridge between human perception and nature.
Visitors find themselves enveloped in a responsive environment where light pulses and soundscapes shift in dialogue with the forest, encouraging a moment of introspection and wonder. Designed to respond to the environment in real time, the installation captures and interprets the connection between trees through an interplay of sound and light, creating a mesmerising, meditative journey that resonates with the festival’s ethos of discovery, creativity and connection.
Pulse will not disappear entirely with the end of the festival. It has been conceived as a permanent fixture at the Houghton site, offering ongoing access to this dialogue between art and nature. Over time, the installation will offer the potential to respond to the changing seasons, weather patterns and tree activity, evolving into a living monument to the forest’s vitality.
Team:
Houghton Festival – Commissioner
Benni Allan – Lead Designer
EBBA – Architects
Kevin Pollard – Sound Design
Our Department – Fabricators
Arup Engineers – Advisory Engineers
Public House – Engineers
Lighthaus Studio – Technical Production
Oliver Ellmers – Lighting Design
Kat Rothery and Katie Dufort – Fabric Seamstress
Abwb.carpentry – Carpentry
Title: Pulse
Location: Houghton Festival
Year: 2025
Client: Houghton
Photography: James Retief, Rikard Kahn
Type: Cultural, Installation
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06•2024
06•2024
V&A Fragile Beauty
V&A Fragile Beauty
The latest project by EBBA is a monumental exhibition for the Victoria & Albert Museum; the first of its kind. The major show is a celebration of the incredible photographs of Elton John and David Furnish who have allowed access to the renowned collection. It is the first time a show entirely dedicated to photography is shown at the V&A.
EBBA worked closely with the curators and the V&A team to create a unique sequence of spaces that could capture the essence of the different themes throughout the show while ensuring the photography was centre stage. In order to help set a pace for the exhibition there are a series of threshold moments that give space between rooms, and at times glimpses across to other galleries are framed to help understand the breadth of the show and the connections between themes.
A key component of the entire project has been the celebration of re-use from the previous major showcase of Chanel. Over 75% of the previous show and its walls where reimagined and recycled, helping to drastically reduce waste and make a show that was more economical and put sustainability at the forefront. This is almost indecipherable from the layout of this new show, however many of the original walls were reinstated in the same location yet through careful design moves, where able to create an entirely new experience.
From the initial welcome space, the subtle curvature of walls can be appreciated, something which acts as a device to remove any abrupt obstables and allow the flow throughout the exhibition. As a the first introduction to the themes of the show, Fashion sets a mature yet playful starting point, where the bespoke lighting helps to mimic the flash lighting in photography that was synonymous with the era in which a lot of the photographs are set.
One of the most important spaces in the show, and where the work of Nan Golding sits is Fragile Beauty. Also the title of the show, this work is housed in a playful yet sculptural object that gives glimpses to there being something important within. As the show progresses into Constructed Images, the works become larger and more abstract. In order to address the scale and to help make sense of the sequence, EBBA developed a large structure that has the appearance of being suspended. The solution to create something that could create the feeling of rooms yet not completely coming to the ground was in order to make sense of the vast collection in this space. In addition to the hanging box, the perimeter walls peel away to distort the views and help to engage with each of the works more closely.
Title: Fragile Beauty
Location: London
Year: 2024
Client: V&A Museum
Photographer: James Retief
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed
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08•2025
08•2025
Parallel Sessions Gallery
Parallel Sessions Gallery
Parallel Sessions reimagines the traditional gallery model through a close collaboration between artist Olu Odukoya and architect Benni Allan, founding director of EBBA. Conceived in 2018 and realised in 2024, the project emerged from a shared desire to create a more flexible, intimate way to engage with art. The two met by chance in East London’s Hackney, where mutual interests in interdisciplinary work and challenging creative norms sparked the idea.
Located on Teesdale Street, the gallery is housed in a modest 3x3x3 metre unit. EBBA helped transform the space into a hybrid gallery-studio, using minimal interventions to prioritise the artwork. The design is intentionally pared back to be compact, tactile and direct, allowing each installation to take centre stage.
The programme is non-linear and time-based, with exhibitions presented as “sessions” that vary in length and form, grouped into evolving “seasons.” This structure allows for repetition, looping and experimentation, giving artists complete control over how their work is experienced.
Originally inspired by a concept for a replicable gallery, Parallel Sessions now includes a digital platform streaming live footage of exhibitions, further extending access. Ultimately, the project embraces limitations as a creative driver, offering a unique model for showcasing diverse, process-led work in both physical and virtual formats.
Title: Parallel Sessions
Location: London
Year: 2025
Client: Olu Odukoya
Photographer: Rikard Kahn, James Retief
Type: Gallery
Status: Completed
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Edouard Malingue
Kauffman at Royal Academy
Late Constable Exhibition
06•2024
06•2024
Kauffman at Royal Academy
Kauffman at Royal Academy
Angelica Kauffman RA was one of the most celebrated artists of the 18th century. In this major exhibition designed by EBBA, the show traces her trajectory from child prodigy to one of Europe’s most sought-after painters.
Known for her celebrity portraits and pioneering history paintings, Angelica Kauffman helped to shape the direction of European art. She painted some of the most influential figures of her day – queens, countesses, actors and socialites – and she reinvented the genre of history painting by focusing largely on female protagonists from classical history and mythology.
The simple execution of the show picks up on the details from the interiors of Somerset House, the original home to her ceiling paintings that now reside in the ground floor of the Royal Academy.
A simple yet elegant set of objects were designed that would help to showcase smaller elements within the gallery, giving equal importance to the works. Detailing in the displays picks up on the fluting found in the ornate spaces in which the original paintings used to hang.
Title: Kauffman
Location: London
Year: 2024
Client: Royal Academy of Arts
Photographer: James Retief
Type: Exhibition
Status: Completed
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07•2023
07•2023
Rotaro at Liberty
Rotaro at Liberty
We are excited to share our latest project for fashion rental brand Rotaro. Working within the unique spaces of Liberty we have created a project focused around ideas of circularity, both in terms of materials and spatial ideas. The environmental response towards fashion is a key message that translates into the overall concept for the space.
The essence of creating a calm and inviting space is enhance by the feeling of warmth that emanates from the cork walls. Two large column like structures help to demarcate the space and make the sense of a room within a room. Wrapping these two elements is a sculptural rail that circulates the space, making places to curate the collection.
Altogether the project has been conceived as an easily demountable system that can be re-purposed for other spaces. The project aims to make claim that beautiful spaces can be created for temporary activations while still considering the environmental impacts of materials and construction. Primarily using cork to line the space we have also sought to introduce a sculptural rail that becomes functional to hold garments in a multitude of ways.
Title: Rotaro
Location: Liberty, London
Year: 2023
Client: Rotaro
Photographs: James Retief
Type: Retail
Status: Completed
04•2023
04•2023
Ashish Exhibition
Ashish Exhibition
EBBA have recently completed the exhibition design and set for the Ashish exhibition at the William Morris Gallery alongside A Practice for Everyday Life. Working closely with the designer Ashish and the curators, the design of each of the spaces aims to create a backdrop for the mannequins while also tying into the history of the prestigious gallery.
Title: Ashish Exhibition
Location: William Morris Gallery, London
Year: 2023
Client: Waltham Forest Council & William Morris Gallery
Photographs: James Retier
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed
03•2024
03•2024
Las Maravillas Farmhouse
Las Maravillas Farmhouse
The restoration of a farm building in Andalucia looks to make use of a series of dilapidated buildings across 350 hectares. As well as major internal works we are proposing to introduce new walls into the landscape that cut through the site, helping to deal with the topography while also framing and forcing new vistas.
We have been working closely with with the client’s and our collaborator, Charlotte Taylor, on the design the new buildings and restoration across the vast site in in Southern Spain to create an ecological wellness retreat including its own farm, stable buildings and a series of homes.
The design of these new structures takes into account the traditions of building within the area and looks to use local materials and techniques from the region. Over the next few years we willl work with the clients and their team to support the development of the land and all of its associated industry, including a number of interventions that will support wellbeing and leisure.
Title: Las Maravillas
Location: Andalucia
Year: 2023-Present
Type: Cultural & Wellness
Status: Planning
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07•2022
07•2022
Into Air Exhibition
Into Air Exhibition
EBBA have designed a series of wooden frames and light boxes in collaboration with artist Dawn Ng and her studio as part of her first UK solo show – ‘Into Air’ – at St Cyprian’s Church, London.
Dawn’s work investigates time through the ephemeral material that is ice. She injects blocks with pigment using colour and pattern to create topographical tributaries. The different frames are presented in a way that captures the qualities of Dawn’s process while interacting with the church itself and allowing the visitors to explore, peer into and get close to the works.
Title: Into Air
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Dawn Ng
Photographs: James Retief
Curator: Jenn Ellis
Presented by Sullivan+Strumpf and Apsara Studio
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed
05•2022
05•2022
Construction Skills School
Construction Skills School
EBBA have been working with the London Legacy Development Corporation on an exciting project to deliver a centre for construction skills learning. In collaboration with CITB and TFL, the construction school will provide the opportunity for people to be sponsored through practical education and training. The facade is aimed to speak of the activities inside the school, as an exploration of assembly which will eventually be disassembled and used in other areas around the Olympic Park.
Title: Construction Skills School
Location: London
Year: 2020
Client: London Legacy Development Corporation
Photographs: James Retief
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed
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