The 2025 Stirling Prize-winning practice has teamed up with architects Purcell and Lawson Ward Studio for the project, which will bring the Courtauld’s teaching spaces and gallery under the same roof for the first time.
Witherford Watson Mann completed the redevelopment of the Courtauld’s north wing in 2021, winning plaudits for its sensitivity to the original spirit of the building.
The new masterplan, unveiled last Thursday (27 November), concentrates on the east wing of the Courtauld, which faces on to the Strand.
Alongside upgrading the Somerset House space, the project will restore the façades of neighbouring townhouses on 152-158 Strand, connecting them to the main gallery.
The campus will include modern teaching spaces, a new lecture theatre, and a library within Somerset House’s subterranean vaults.
Mark Hallett, Märit Rausing director of the Courtauld, said it would provide a ‘beautiful and stimulating environment in which to learn about the visual arts’.
The Courtauld Institute, founded in 1932 by art collector Samuel Courtauld, is both a gallery and a centre of art historical research. It has been based in Somerset House since 1989.
Practice director Stephen Witherford said: ‘Our work with the Courtauld has focused on transforming their relationship to the inherited rooms at Somerset House by reimagining the spatial relationships between their teaching, research, collections, and conservation work to radically enhance the collective experience of their students, staff, and audiences.
‘This next phase of the project, delivered in collaboration with Purcell and Lawson Ward Studio Architects, will realise this vision across an expanded, open and more accessible campus.’
The work is being funded by donations, including £30 million from the Reuben Foundation in October, the largest gift the Courtauld has ever received.
Work is expected to be completed in 2029, three years shy of the gallery’s 100th anniversary.
