The National Gallery: New Wing

The National Gallery: New Wing

Location: London, UK
Scope: Cultural, Gallery Competition
Area: 5,000 m²
Architect: Studio Seilern Architects

In December 2025, Studio Seilern Architects was shortlisted for the competition to create a new wing for the National Gallery, London, alongside Foster + Partners, Kengo Kuma, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and Selldorf Architects.

Our proposal for the new wing was conceived as a recalibration of the institution’s identity as its mission expands from the stewardship of pre-1900 painting towards a broader dialogue between the art of the past and the present. The proposal considers how a new architectural intervention might extend the Gallery’s civic presence, strengthen its connection to the city, and create a more fluid relationship between public life, curatorial continuity, and the experience of art.

Positioned between Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square, the project addresses a fragmented urban edge and transforms St Martin’s Street from a residual condition into an active civic frontage. At ground level, the proposal introduces a new public “Third Space”, conceived neither as foyer nor gallery, but as a flexible cultural living room connected to the Sainsbury Wing foyer and opening onto a new public court. This space supports gathering, performance, artist commissions and informal occupation, allowing the Gallery to extend its cultural and social reach into the city

A defining design principle of the existing building was the organisation of the permanent collection on a single horizontal plane. The proposal prioritises continuity of movement, placing the new Permanent Galleries on one level in the original arrangement and aligning them with the Wilkins Building, North Wing and Sainsbury Wing. This creates a seamless sequence across the institution and completes the chronological loop of the collection. The enfilade, as both spatial and curatorial device, is extended through long sightlines and layered visual connections, allowing dialogue between works, galleries and periods of time.

Daylight is treated as a design anchor throughout the project. The Temporary Exhibition Gallery is conceived as a flexible, open space lit through a walkable glazed roof terrace above. Structural ribs supporting the roof reflect and distribute daylight evenly through the gallery below, while horizontal shades allow the space to shift from fully daylit to fully blacked out, supporting a wide range of exhibition conditions.

The proposal also takes a strategic approach to reuse. St Vincent House is treated as an urban mining asset, with the potential to reuse concrete floor slabs and retain a significant proportion of the existing raft foundation. The New Wing is approached not only as an extension of the Gallery, but as an architectural act of continuity, drawing together civic presence, curatorial evolution, environmental responsibility and the public life of the city.