The Royal Academy was founded in 1768 with the support of King George the third. It moved to its present home at Burlington House in 1868. The Sackler Gallery within it was designed & built by Foster & Partners in 1991 and the two spaces are separated by a pair of bi-fold doors which fit within the thickness of the dividing wall when open. When first built it was amazing and exciting, a spaceship hanging over Piccadilly, and now,after almost 30 years, it’s has become a well loved addition. These doors have flat framing with a bead & butt detail on the vertical edges of the panels to mask movement, a neat way of alluding to the 150 year gap between the now shabby bolection mould panelling on the Burlington house side and the machine age materials and construction opposite. It’s an ancient detail whose use here feels quite contemporary and an elegant punctuation between old and new.
