At first glance, designing an art gallery may appear to be a relatively autonomous architectural task. Something closer to refurbishment, scenography, or interior design than to architecture operating at an urban or territorial scale. Yet, in reality, it is far more complex. Gallery spaces are deeply embedded within local and global networks, they are connected to systems of cultural production, economic speculation, capital circulation, real-estate transformation, and, often, processes of gentrification. Designing a gallery is therefore not only about accommodating artworks, but about understanding the broader cultural and political infrastructures in which these spaces operate. This course proposes to study the art gallery not simply as an architectonic typology, but as a total form of Curatorial Architecture. An architectural approach that organizes spatial, social, and cultural relationships within an existing framework.
Rather than understanding galleries as isolated interiors, the Design Studio approaches them as cultural agents embedded within broader socio-spatial systems. Behind every gallery space lies a complex network of actors and negotiations: clients, curators, artists, technicians, institutions, collectors, neighborhoods, and urban policies. One of the central ambitions of the course is to render these often invisible frameworks visible, while simultaneously questioning the role of the architect within them. The studio asks how architecture responds differently to similar cultural programs depending on context, and how gallery spaces can become tools through which to critically understand wider urban transformations. The design course will feature Carmen Lael Hines, a curator and researcher currently working across contemporary art, architecture, and digital culture, who has developed exhibitions and research projects in both Madrid and Vienna. Her expertise on the intricacies of the curator’s role today, particularly in relation to the physical and virtual realms of the art gallery, will be a key element throughout the course.
The most successful examples of gallery design are often those in which architecture deliberately steps back, providing a backdrop for the artworks themselves. Additionally, designing a gallery space means managing a complex hybrid program: simultaneously a workspace, a public space, and a consumer-oriented environment, often within highly constrained spatial conditions. Operating within these contexts requires precision and an acute understanding of what should be transformed in order to activate the existing space. The course will compare the gallery cultures of Madrid and Vienna through a parallel design exercise. The central disciplinary question of the studio is: what happens when the same typology is explored in two radically different urban and cultural contexts?
Methods:
The semester takes place in English and in individual work. Work will be carried out in small groups of two.
In the tension between observation and design, the artistic techniques of appropriation and representation of what is observed and designed play a central role as a tool: a model is a working model, a drawing is a tool, each step is documented and at the end part of the semester work. Continuous attendance and participation in the excursion are therefore mandatory requirements for the students. This design studio leads to a series of visual and textual representations that are carried out during the semester. These include models, drawings, diagrams, photographs, films, essays and interviews. In parallel with the research and design phases of the studio, students are asked to prepare lectures.
Borrowing from curatorial approaches, exhibition design, students will explore strategies of display, framing, partial occupation, narrative spatialization, architectural staging in order to create proposals that reflect the complexities behind the creation and use of existing architecture.
The design work is divided into sections and goes through several stages.
Research of basic information
Development of design criteria and concept development
Development of designs using analog models
Discussion groups and role-playing
Lectures and tours
Excursion
Presentations and feedback sessions
Reflection groups
Workshops
Small group and individual meetings
Lecturers:
Wilfried Kuehn
Carlos Mombiela
Tutor:
Luis Hasenberger
Further Information:
Kick-off: Thu, 1th of October 2026, 10.00 – 13.00, White Cube.
Meetings will take place every Thursday, 10.00 – 13.00 in White Cube.
This design studio will be held in English and will include an excursion to Madrid, Spain.
Excursion: 23.11.2026 – 28.11.2026
23.11.2026 Arrival in Madrid
24.11.2026 Gallery visits. The Ryder Projects, SOLO, Albarrán-Bourdais
25.11.2026 Workshop at ETSAM University
26.11.2026 Guided tour through the Carabanchel neighborhood. Visits to artist studios.
27.11.2026 Visit Casa de la Arquitectura. MID TERM CRITS
28.11.2026 Return journey to Vienna
Travel to and from Madrid as well as accommodation are booked independently by the students.
Estimated costs:
Travel to and from Madrid: approx. €200
Accommodation (5 nights): approx. €300
Other (public transport, admissions, local bus, etc.): approx. €100
Approximate total costs per student: €500-600
The dean’s office will provide each person with an excursion subsidy of approximately 10% of the total costs.