Looking outside: Giles Round explores the façade with a colourful installation at the RIBA

Bridging art and architecture, the RIBA has just unveiled its latest site-specific commission, housed at its art deco London headquarters – an installation by multi-disciplinary artist Giles Round, entitled ‘We live in the office’.
This is not the RIBA’s first foray into art. The collaboration between Assemble and Simon Terrill last year on the 'Brutalist Playground' exhibition received critical acclaim, so the institute is now back with its second instalment in the series, that aims to open up new ways of engaging the wider public in architectural discourse.
Round was invited to explore the RIBA Collections – the institute’s extensive archive of books, drawings and photographs – to research and experiment with a key, and very familiar, architectural feature: the façade. Drawing inspiration from iconic façades by masters such as Berthold Lubetkin, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and Jane Drew, as well as different architectural styles and periods, the artist created a graphic series for the Architecture Gallery and RIBA foyer using everything from bright colours and abstracted façade patterns, to chain mail curtains. The result? A dramatic spatial transformation that investigates the aesthetic qualities of façades, as well as the way we ‘collect’ and perceive them, explains the artist.
‘Central to the exhibition, an idea reflected in the title, is the re-appropriation and repurposing of buildings that no longer fulfil the functional requirements for which they were designed’, says Round. ‘Working with the RIBA Collections, I focused on particular façades that I found interesting either graphically or due to their back-story. Throughout the exhibition the graphic quality of the selected façades are appropriated, stylistically altered, into new forms and different media.’
The show was curated by RIBA curatorial programmes coordinator Corinne Mynatt, RIBA project curator Colin Sterling and Lotte Juul Petersen, the artists and programmes curator at Wysing Arts Centre.
Through the exhibition, the RIBA's second show to combine art and architecture, Round explores a familiar architectural element: the façade.
Delving into the RIBA Collections – the institute’s rich archive of books, drawings and photographs – the artist drew inspiration from different façade styles and architectural periods.
The result? A colourful and playful transformation of the gallery and foyer space at the RIBA's London HQ that ustilises everything from colour and pattern, to chain mail curtains.
Part of Round's inspiration board: the Minoan palace of Knossos at Iraklion, Crete. This is the façade of the shrine on the central court and its system of colouring by Sir Arthur Evans (1911).
Similarly, Round looked at Berthold Lubetkin's work. Pictured: an unexecuted alternative design for a prefabricated house front, part of the 100 Houses Scheme, Thorntree Gill Housing, Peterlee New Town, Co. Durham (1944).
INFORMATION
‘We live in the office’ is on view until 5 February. For more information, visit the RIBA website
ADDRESS
RIBA
66 Portland Place
London, W1B 1AD
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
The gayest love story ever told: Jeremy Atherton Lin's memoir is a tribute to home
In 'Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told', Jeremy Atherton Lin mixes memoir with a historical deep-dive into marriage equlaity
-
This monumental Valentino book is a true Italian fashion epic
Spanning oral testimony, sketches and magazine spreads, ‘Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic’ (published by Taschen) charts the career of Valentino Garavani, whose mononymous Roman house would define a vision of Italian glamour
-
At the Royal Academy summer show, architecture and art combine as never before
The Royal Academy summer show is about to open in London; we toured the iconic annual exhibition and spoke to its curator for architecture, Farshid Moussavi
-
At the Royal Academy summer show, architecture and art combine as never before
The Royal Academy summer show is about to open in London; we toured the iconic annual exhibition and spoke to its curator for architecture, Farshid Moussavi
-
This ingenious London office expansion was built in an on-site workshop
New Wave London and Thomas-McBrien Architects make a splash with this glulam extension built in the very studio it sought to transform. Here's how they did it
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on life
Thanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being reborn as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Lego and Serpentine celebrate World Play Day with a new pavilion
Lego and Serpentine have just unveiled their Play Pavilion; a colourful new structure in Kensington Gardens in London and a gesture that celebrates World Play Day (11 June)
-
Inside Abbey Road's refresh: touring the legendary studio's new interior
Abbey Road gets an interior refresh by Threefold Architects, bringing the legendary London recording studio in tune with the 21st century
-
The Serpentine Pavilion 2025 is ready to visit, ‘an exhibition you can use’
The Serpentine Pavilion 2025 is ready for its public opening on 6 June; we toured the structure and spoke to its architect, Marina Tabassum
-
A meticulously crafted artist’s space in east London evokes the area’s long creative history
Maich Swift Architects’ artist’s space has radically reconfigured a Victorian terraced house, transforming it into a contemporary live/work interior
-
Welcome to Omved Gardens, north London’s hidden green oasis
This secret space in Highgate is relaunching as a vibrant community hub with new spaces, activities and exhibitions