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The Courtauld Gallery reopens this November following a major renovation of its historic Somerset House home. Join architect Stephen Witherford, the lead project director from Witherford Watson Mann architects, as he talks through the challenges of this transformation and how they necessitated the close collaboration of architect and craftsman to achieve a highly ambitious set of relationships between the old and the new over the two-year construction period.

‘Out of Site’ refers to the nature of human actions that have emanated from the transformation of The Courtauld Gallery. It also acknowledges a fundamental aspect of this process – the things outside the architect’s point of fixation, things that cannot be defined in drawings and specifications. By necessity, these human actions introduce risk into the process of construction – a collaborative exchange between idea and means. Engaging with this type of risk is a fundamental aspect of craft – where architects are in the hands of others.