OPEN STUDIO

Conceived of as a new urban tool, this modular structure on wheels has been co-designed to encompass a series of functions; outdoor studio, shared workshop space, library and bookshop, artists’ market stall, mobile cinema, off-site exhibition host, seed bank and drawing office.

Our aim was to create a practical yet playful design that will host, support and expand Devonshire Collective’s community programme, that can move beyond the gallery walls while offering function within.

YEAR
2025

COLLABORATORS
Devonshire Collective
Public House

BUILD TEAM
Felix Sagar, James Hepper

PHOTOGRAPHY
James Hepper

At the gallery, the structure houses Collective Books, Devonshire Collective’s open submission bookshop, and will function as a display space, platforming our artist community.

When out in the street it is porous - without walls it stands as an open invite to passers by and offers us the opportunity to create, share and do together while surrounded by new vistas, from the Victorian architecture of Seaside Road to the rolling downs, from Eastbourne’s street markets to the horizon out to sea.

We worked with Public House engineers to create a lightweight structure, which was easy to move and rigid when assembled. Each shelving unit is a rolling storage cabinet for the open studio: once wheeled into place, the units become vertical supports for 3mm folded aluminum structural tabletops which span over 2m, and a 4x4m roof covering which is rolled out and attached to the tops of the columns through tapered ply beams. All in all, it’s a 10 minute pop-up process.