For an architectural practice specialising in directing the public, it wasn't easy finding its office at 20 Wharfdale Road in London's King's Cross. The fact that it has a huge bright orange front door with the number 20 in large numbers next to it might have given me a clue, except for the fact that it is actually on an entirely different street altogether - Lavina Grove. That's architects for you. I was here to meet RFK Architects to look at its proposals for the Tate's new 'Turner Whistler Monet' exhibition, opening today - but also to see how it got into this type of work. Admittedly, exhibition design, just like interior design, is one of those professions that many architects believe they can do themselves without the intervention of a specialist, so I thought it would be interesting to find out what kind of specialism RFK brings to the table. Exhibition design is, after all, against the grain of the current trend in gallery design that says the architecture should be as important as (or in some cases, more important than) the art itself. In sympathetic exhibition design, the architecture form and layout is meant to enhance the art but not be intrusive, to assist the core goal of presenting art to the public but not to be part of, or usurp, the art itself.
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