6a architects
South London Gallery
- Architect6a architects
- PhotographerDan Weill, David Grandorge, Johan Dehlin and Hisao Suzuki
MENTZE OTTENSTEIN It’s hard to pick one project in particular, as 6a is an office we admire a lot. Their understated approach in general, and the way they collaborate with artists, is something we can relate to. The South London Gallery is a two-venue exhibition space in a part of London with few cultural venues. It’s a transformation of two old buildings, one of them a former firestation. It’s the respect for its past history, and an eye for its relevance for today.
6a architects
London-based architecture studio 6a has built a reputation for an architecture that listens before it speaks. Founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001, the studio is known for its quietly radical approach - transforming existing structures with care, restraint, and a sensitivity to history and material. Whether converting 18th-century townhouses or designing new galleries, 6a’s work often moves between art and architecture, between preservation and reinvention.
The SLG
The South London Gallery is one of their most defining collaborations. Over fifteen years, 6a has guided the gallery’s slow transformation - from a single Victorian building into a constellation of interconnected spaces across Peckham Road. The most recent addition, the Fire Station, occupies one of London’s earliest purpose-built firehouses. Once home to Kennedy’s Sausages, the 1867 building has been reimagined as a series of luminous galleries, studios, and public rooms connected by a white, grilled staircase that draws daylight deep into the old brick shell.
Across each phase - from the restoration of No. 67 to the creation of new gardens, education spaces and the Orozco courtyard - the project embodies a rare architectural humility. Rather than imposing a new language, 6a reveals what is already there: history, community, texture, and time.
The result is an ensemble of spaces that feel both familiar and renewed - a gallery that grows from the city itself, quietly expanding the ways art can belong to everyday life.
