Shot Tower Gallery inhabits a rare inner-city Melbourne industrial estate. The Clifton Hill Shot Tower and adjoining brick factory buildings, designed for Richard Hodgson to manufacture lead shot were erected in 1882. A new art gallery design makes use of the industrial shell by carefully inserting a minimal intervention into the surviving brick factory building.

A large open-plan exhibition space forms in the factory wing flanking the shot tower. New glazed entries are inserted where the existing roller door loading bays are found, enabling patrons a rare up close glimpse of the historic shot tower artefact to the southern end, one of only two surviving in Melbourne.

A storage room and small office clad in raw steel greet patrons entering from the rear shaded courtyard, as the space unfolds further the beauty of the original steel truss roof becomes evident and a generous exhibition space presents. The gallery walls are partitioned naturally in the industrial bays revealing immaculate steel detailing of another time. A large sliding door separates this gallery space from the rest of the old factory building. A new museum-grade lighting rig is suspended from the truss roof structure and custom gallery seating provides an opportunity to rest and reflect.

At night, the large roller doors are closed and the estate transforms back to an inconspicuous industrial estate. Only now it has a caretaker, an occupant to reveal its beauty and functionalism, to invite a public into it, and to preserve it for future generations.

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