Pringle Richard Sharratt’s extension to the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry creates a new entrance to the 1960 museum on the elevation facing the city’s cathedral and university square — and also improves the building’s accessibility and legibility.

The structure replaces an earlier extension and provides new gallery space and a covered double-height glazed arcade at the entrance boasting exposed engineered timber construction, a glulam gridshell and cross-laminated timber panels, with the roof supported on raked timber columns.

The roof was inspired by Basil Spence’s Cathedral of St Michael, which was built next to the ruined medieval Cathedral Church of St Michael after it was partly destroyed in the second world war.

Link: Building Design 25th July 2008

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