Refreshed Gainsborough House in Suffolk gears up for reopening

Thomas Gainsborough House in Suffolk reopens to a design by architecture studio ZMMA

Gainsborough House ZMMA Sudbury Suffolk
(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

Gainsborough House, the childhood home of the celebrated British artist Thomas Gainsborough, is about to reopen in Sudbury, Suffolk. The space, which has been undergoing thorough refurbishment and redesign by architecture studio ZMMA, is now the largest gallery in its region, and is set to become a key cultural destination for it. The refresh encompasses a new three-storey building, to house an entrance area, as well as four modern gallery spaces. 

Gainsborough House by zmma exterior as seen from the street approach

(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

Gainsborough House reopening

To match the area's architectural language and the existing buildings on site, the new structure was composed in locally made brick and flint. These contemporary spaces are complemented by the careful restoration of the original, Grade I-listed late medieval, Georgian and Regency townhouse where the painter lived. As part of the complex, the open glass-faced Watering Place café and terrace offer connections to the garden as well as a place for visitors and the local community to gather, sit and relax to enjoy and take in the scenery. 

Gainsborough house redesigned gallery interior by zmma

(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

'The powerful connection between the landscape surrounding Sudbury and its representation in Gainsborough’s work inspired us to create a new gallery building whose clay and flint materials are brought directly from Gainsborough’s Suffolk landscape. From the expanded museum campus, visitors will enjoy long views of the countryside beyond the town’s rooftops. Sudbury’s silk-weaving led us to make brickwork façades that appear woven, and to silk-line a new gallery for Gainsborough’s grandest canvasses. Gainsborough’s home has been reimagined and enriched to make complementary historic and modern settings for the museum’s displays,' says Adam Zombory-Moldovan, project director at ZMMA. 

Gainsborough house interior restoration

(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

Gainsborough house exterior of listing house

(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

modern galleries in Gainsborough museum

(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

Gainsborough house modern staircase

(Image credit: Hufton + Crow)

zmma.com

gainsborough.org

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).