Image:David Chipperfield and Charles Saumarez Smith (RA Secretary and Chief Executive) with Royal Academicians looking at the proposals in the model;image © David Chipperfield Architects

This morning at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the scheme for the redevelopment of its historic buildings was presented at a press conference.

The redevelopment will link Burlington House and Burlington Gardens for the first time, opening up access to the schools, and creating new public areas that will include dedicated spaces for exhibitions and displays across the site for the historic collections, contemporary art projects and new work by Royal Academicians. The Royal Academy will also gain a double-height lecture theatre with over 260 seats and enhanced facilities for its education programme.These new developments will be completed in time for the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary in 2018. 

all images courtesy of Royal Academy of Fine Arts

RA buildings, Burlington House on Piccadilly and 6 Burlington Gardens, will be united through designs by internationally-acclaimed architect David Chipperfield RA.The redevelopment will reveal the elements that make the RA unique, sharing with the public our historic treasures, the work of our Academicians and the RA Schools, alongside our world-class exhibitions programme. 

In this video, architect David Chipperfield RA discusses his plans for opening up the Royal Academy ahead of our 250th anniversary in 2018.

Watch the Video

New public areas will be created, including dedicated spaces for exhibitions and displays across the site for our historic collection, contemporary art projects and new work by Royal Academicians.A double-height lecture theatre with over 260 seats will build on the Academy’s heritage of rigorous and lively debate.New facilities will enable us to provide a better welcome for our Friends and visitors, as well as our learning programme and more spaces for the RA Schools. Explore the new spaces and facilities below – and keep an eye on this page as our plans unfold.

So seven years from buying the freehold, plans for a solution to this ‘difficult adjacency’ were no further forward.In 2008, Chipperfield was the next big name to be invited by the RA to seize the opportunity of uniting/connecting/ blending the ‘Two Burlingtons’. Interestingly, the initial commission was still to renovate Burlington Gardens by itself. “Within a year David came back to us and said the scheme would only work if you connect the two buildings,” said Saumarez Smith, as we stood in the studios of the RA Schools on the north side of Burlington House and facing the back of Burlington Gardens. And then the clincher, simple but daring: “David said, ‘We will give you ‘front door to front door connection’, which means we must go straight through the Schools!’”

a cross-section of the Royal Academy's site in 2018;Image:Hayes Davidson

> via David Chipperfield Architects,Royal Academy of Arts