The Bloomsbury Group’s fabled Charleston home has undergone a bumper expansion by Jamie Fobert Architects to add new exhibition space.

The ramshackle Sussex country estate was the home of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and stomping ground of Modernist writers including Virginia and Leonard Woolf. It is run by the The Charleston Trust but it’s never had a dedicated exhibition space – until now.

Jamie Fobert Architects has built the new gallery using cross-laminated timber. Its rustic form is inspired by Charleston’s historic barns and it houses five galleries and a retail space. Three of its cubic galleries borrow the proportions of Charleston’s main farmhouse.

Meanwhile two 18th-century farm buildings have been turned into an events space and restaurant, designed by practice Julian Harrap Architects.

Charleston’s gallery launches on 8 September with the exhibition Orlando at the present time, in which contemporary artists respond to Virginia Woolf’s seminal novel, Orlando. The country home will now be open year round.

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