“why should the face of a building always be on the outside? Why, for that matter, can the face not be replaced altogether by a moving picture gallery?… can [we] replace the manipulative, one-dimensional image with something far more advanced and intangible: the ‘after image’, the one you take home with you, an inexhaustible, ever-renewing composite of perceptions, memories and thoughts.”  

_{— Ben van Berkel & Caroline Bos, 'After Image', Design Models, 2006}

Responding to the solidity and monolithic nature of Sir John Soane’s gallery, and the porous, ever-changing nature of the landscape, After Image mediates between the two, breaking down their delineation and creating a new visual experience for the gallery’s visitors. A series of translucent mirrored screens—some fixed, some movable—reflect and disrupt the context. Fragments of the building appear in the landscape, and fragments of the landscape in the building, while the translucency of the screens creates an overlay of moving images: of building, of landscape, of personal reflection and of others beyond.

The pavilion’s simple rectangular form responds directly to that of the existing building. When closed, the panels form a strong axial alignment of the bar and the square plan of the event space, while the horizontal banding of the elevation—the plinth, mesh veil and roof structure—echoes the datums of the gallery. The lightness of the structure, by contrast, engages with the wider landscape, and with the lanterns of the gallery. The timber truss roof and surrounding veil create a canopy-like environment, with their shadows—and the reflections of shadows—adding to the layering of images, and to the interplay of space, perception and memory.

The project was realised in collaboration with StructureMode and Weber Industries.