A new sense of purpose for a sculptor's studio home

摘要

Eighteen months ago, Dorich House (1936), the highly individual studio home which the emigree Russian sculptor. Dora Gordine designed for herself and her husband beside London's Richmond Park, stood empty and vulnerable. Rain penetration, vandalism, and encroaching ivy from the unkempt garden around the house promised to make it an enigmatic ruin before many years had passed. But on behalf of its new owner, Kingston University (Gordine having died in 1991), the Grade II-listed building has now been sensitively restored by architect David Brown & Partners. It will serve various educational purposes for the university while showing, to their advantage, the artworks that Gordine both made and collected - her own sculptures, Russian icons, and Imperialist paintings and artefacts.