This is final building work of Richard Rogers, initiated before his June 2020 retirement from the firm he founded in London in 1977, and which in 2007 was renamed Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP).

The art gallery designed by the Pritzker laureate cantilevers 27 meters off the hillside and over treetops in the Château La Coste vineyard, in France’s Provence region. To capitalize on the views that the location affords, the pavilion – all of 120 square meters – is almost entirely suspended off the sloping ground. This necessitated an ambitious structural solution.

Wrapped in orange steel tubes that taper as it extends outwards into mid-air, the construction is the last architectural piece to appear in the Château La Coste vineyard, a recondite estate that is home to one of the world’s most important private collections of art and architecture, opened to the public in 2011 and featuring works by Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Renzo Piano.

Touching the ground at a single end, the pavilion’s footprint in minimal. The rectangular block of steel with a satin finish is composed of prefabricated elements assembled on the site. Immersed in nature with an industrial look, the new art gallery presents carefully crafted details. Inside, where the color white predominates, the sculptural rectangular prism frames views of the landscape with a full-height, full-width window at one tip.