The RCKa-designed new premises for Open Eye Gallery, one of the UK's leading photographic galleries, opened in November 2011. RCKa's project balances the curatorial requirements of the gallery with the need to create a unique, public-facing and engaging space. The new location for Open Eye is on the former Fourth Grace site, Liverpool's showpiece for the Capital Of Culture bid, holding World Heritage status. The desire to make art more accessible to the public led an approach which unlocked the maximum value from this prominent site: delivering an arresting building while also providing more gallery space than was originally envisaged.

The gallery's design facilitates four distinct exhibition spaces. The first is the public space outside the gallery created by the folding, angled and translucent external wall. This wall provides a stimulating canvas for installations; bringing the inside of the gallery out and directly into the public's gaze. To connect the architecture with the wider setting and context of the new site, RCKa proposed a dazzle paint design for the angled wall, referencing the dazzle camouflage developed in the nearby Albert Docks and used by war ships in the First World War. The wall embodies the gallery's new personality, inviting the public to engage in a less formal way compared with a traditional gallery.

Internally there are three exhibition spaces of varying character. The public is greeted by a dramatic double-height gallery space. With its imposing proportions and diffuse lighting, the space is visually stimulating and capable of accommodating large works of art. The second gallery is flexible and, with its fourth wall of glass, provides a city-facing event space, advertising the gallery's activities to the wider public. The first floor holds the final enclosed gallery space, which accommodates Open Eye's extensive photographic archive.