TARQ

4200 sq ft | Completed - 2023 | Mumbai, India

TARQ, a prominent contemporary art gallery known for nurturing emerging talents, embarked on a significant relocation to KK Chambers, a century-old building near Flora Fountain. This expansive space, nearly twice the size of its previous home at Dhanraj Mahal, seeks to accommodate the evolving needs of the artists it supports. Guiding this evolution was founder Hena Kapadia, who collaborated with architect Katsushi Goto of Square Works to design an ingenious transformation that marries minimalism with warmth.

The architect’s design enlivens the interior with familiar colors and intricate touches reminiscent of its former location. Of particular note are the butterfly doors, ingeniously designed by Goto to open inwards like a butterfly's wings. This thoughtful detailing permeates the space, extending to the library's detachable teak wood railing, optimizing accessibility to the upper storage area.

The illumination, designed by Studio TRACE aimed to embody the same lightness of being.

Conceptualised as a single ‘Line of Light’, the technical lights run quietly through the space. Created as a two tier system, which can be individually dimmed, the lower level houses a track light and the upper level has seamless diffused profiles that were custom fabricated to give a soft light in all directions. This enables the quality of the light to easily switch between a comfortable ambient glow to creating a very sharp focus on the artworks.

The design seamlessly integrates historical elements with modern functionality. Teakwood accents not only line the space but also provide a visual link between the colonial-era past and contemporary present. The architectural metamorphosis, akin to the butterfly doors' delicate movement, resonates with the gallery's spirit – fostering emerging artists while embracing change.

The art catches your attention and each detail is carefully lit to showcase its brilliance - like the delicacy of a papercut sculpture, the translucency of a layered watercolor, the intricacy of a pencil drawing or the magnificence of a backlit collage. 

We also conducted intensive hands-on training session with the TARQ team, teaching them different techniques of lighting artworks across mediums. 

TEAM

Lighting Design - Studio TRACE

Architect - Goto Katsushi , Squareworks Lab

Photography - Fabien Charuau, Ashish Chandra

Image by Ashish Chandra