Nottingham Contemporary, Modern art gallery in Lace Market district, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Nottingham Contemporary is a contemporary art gallery in Nottingham's Lace Market district, showing international exhibitions across several large halls. The building is partly set into the city's sandstone cliffs and also holds spaces for education and public research alongside the exhibition areas.
The gallery opened in 2009 on a site that had served many different purposes over the centuries, from a Saxon fort to a medieval town hall and later Victorian railway buildings. Those earlier layers still lie beneath the current structure.
The green concrete panels on the outside carry a lace pattern, a direct nod to the textile trade that once defined this part of the city. The Lace Market district takes its name from that same industry, and the gallery sits at its center.
Some rooms sit below street level because the building is cut into the sandstone cliffs, so those spaces can feel lower and more enclosed than expected. It is worth checking at the entrance which areas are currently open, as the layout may change depending on the exhibitions on at the time.
The London firm Caruso St John designed the facade using precast concrete panels with a lace pattern pressed directly into the material rather than applied on top. This means the surface changes in appearance depending on the light, so the outside of the building looks different at various times of day.
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