Cardboard House is an exhibition tribute to the late Sir Terry Farrell, a post-modern architect whose legacy includes Palmer Gallery's Old Areoworks building in Lisson Grove (where he lived and his architectural studio is still based), and the Mi6 headquarters in Vauxhall. The show brings together the work of Levi de Jong, Ali Glover, Zayd Menk, and Zachary Merle - four artists who engage with architectural concepts and channel a counter-cultural energy that Terry Farrell was known and celebrated for.
The exhibition title, Cardboard House, references Farrell’s assertion that even a cardboard house could last forever if people were motivated to care for it. The phrase encapsulates his belief that, rather than material permanence, buildings can be sustained through collective responsibility and shared use. It similarly reflects his childlike impulse to build, and a sense that creation can be playful and provisional, treating creativity as an unfixed, iterative process which can be continuously worked and reimagined over time. This ethos is embodied in the Palmer building itself, which has evolved from an industrial site producing tyres for military aircraft, to a mixed-use office and residential complex, and now to its current guise as a contemporary art gallery; a living example of Farrell’s vision of architecture as layered, adaptable, and sustained through care and use.
In this spirit, Cardboard House positions Farrell’s legacy as a point of departure, bringing together emerging contemporary voices whose practices engage architecture, material systems, and the poetics of infrastructure. Through diverse media, Zayd Menk, Ali Glover, Zachary Merle, and Levi de Jong investigate the ways we inhabit and interpret space, from kinetic sculpture and site-specific installations, to archival image transfers and industrial abstraction. Opening alongside the launch of Lisson Grove Galleries, the exhibition marks a shared moment of attention to place, reflecting on how architecture and art intersect not only in monumental landmarks, but in the everyday spaces we move through, while acknowledging Farrell’s enduring impact on Lisson Grove and the wider cultural landscape.
A private view will take place at the gallery on Thursday 5th March, 6-8pm.