The Walnut Gallery House

A concept for a 600 m² family villa in a New Administrative Capital compound, designed around a family art collection.

The brief behind this concept is a family that collects — paintings, works on paper and a few sculptures, lived with every day rather than kept in storage. The plan is organised along a long gallery that runs from the entrance to the garden. Its walls are lined in walnut panelling with concealed hanging rails, so pieces can be rehung as the collection grows, and the family rooms open off it on both sides.

Light is the central design question. Direct sun harms paper and fades pigment, so the gallery is lit from above through a continuous north-facing clerestory with deep baffles, and the south facade is screened by vertical travertine fins. In the evening, adjustable spotlights in a bronze ceiling channel take over, casting warm, even light on the walls while the floor stays in soft shadow.

Around the gallery, the living rooms stay deliberately quiet: lime-plaster walls, honed travertine floors and low, simple furniture, so the collection carries the colour of the house. At the garden end the axis closes on an open sculpture court framed in the same walnut and bronze, where a single piece can be seen from the front door and changed with the seasons.