Out with the olde

Jonathan Glancey explores a New Forest art gallery conversion which brilliantly rejects the dead hand of `vernacular' architecture

Two minutes from Sway station in the New Forest is the Forest Heath Hotel, a handsome Victorian pub built to cash in on the new railway- age visitors to this beautiful stretch of southern England. Tourists have come here ever since to experience one of the last of Britain's forests, to camp among its ancient trees, to send postcards home depicting the famous free-roaming ponies and to escape the modern world.

This month, the modern world catches up with Sway, but in the most unlikely setting. And, no, it's not another superstore. The coach house at the back of the Forest Heath Hotel has been transformed into Artsway, a gallery of contemporary art directed by Linda Fredericks, a local resident with many years of experience in visual and performing arts, and designed by Tony Fretton, the architect who designed the internationally acclaimed Lisson Gallery on London's Edgware Road.

This small gallery is a small triumph, a local initiative that nurtures the best of contemporary art in a rural setting with no obvious or historic connection to the established art world. Just as exciting is the fact that Tony Fretton has demonstrated how a small, converted and extended rural building can be adventurous without being bombastic, gentle without being soggy.

Throughout Hampshire, as in most of Britain, visitors in search of old- fashioned country towns are increasingly insulted by forms of folksy modern buildings. Labelled "vernacular" because they are meant to reflect local building traditions, they look much the same whether you are visiting Hampshire or Yorkshire. A few "historic" details glued on to a breeze- block construction, skinned in artificial stone or green timber, does the trick and, hey presto, a traditional-style building.

Artsway proves, first of all, that a modern rural building can be imaginative and both forward and backwards looking at one and the same time. For a total cost of just pounds 200,000, Fretton has gently converted the existing coach house and added on clear and subtly lit gallery space sunk into the ground - to gain extra height - with the pure white spaces protected by an undulating clapboard skin reminiscent of an overturned boat.

Stepping inside, the gallery seems much bigger than it is on the outside. In fact most adults standing outside the building can reach up and touch the eaves. Fretton's trick is to create city-sized galleries in a quiet Victorian coach shed. More than this, however, he has softened the edges of the galleries so that it is hard to tell where wall ends and ceiling starts. Fretton's white, modern approach to architecture might seem oh- so-cool on paper, but the reality is a form of design composed of very few elements or materials that is, nevertheless, gentle and engaging.

What Fretton achieves is a form of architecture where space seems to dissolve into light. He achieved this at the Lisson Gallery and has done so again here. Small wonder contemporary artists enjoy showing in the Lisson. They will delight in appearing at the Artsway.

In spring, the gallery will appear to grow from a carpet of long meadow grass in which sculptures will mix with poppies. The relationship between the soft landscape, the gentle texture and almost ephemeral nature of the building and the radical art on show will be pretty much unique in Britain.

To date, small local galleries have tended to be either precious or dainty. The former might include Kettles Yard in Cambridge, in which visitors might feel they are treading on glass. The latter comprises the proliferation of well-meaning galleries displaying a doldrum of conventional seascapes and exhausted landscapes. They often add into this briny or earthy mix some wobbly pots, corn dollies and string knotted into awkward shapes.

Artsway is very different. It was dreamt up six years ago by Linda Fredericks and a small group of local artists and enthusiasts. "We wanted to create a small local gallery," says Fredericks, "where we could originate shows of contemporary art. To date, artists, quite a number of whom live in the country, have had to show in London or other major cities, because there has been no real home for them in rural galleries. We believe - and I think this is obvious in 1997 but not so some years back - that there is a growing appetite for contemporary art and we don't see why this has to be confined to public galleries in major towns and cities or commercial galleries in London.

"In the beginning we were looking for studios. Then Whitbread, who own the Forest Heath Hotel, offered us the lease on the coach house. Southern Arts, the district and county councils all got involved and six years and pounds 448,000 down the line we've got something even more exciting than we thought we would. Hugh Adams, of Southern Arts, introduced us to Tony Fretton, which was wonderful, as now we had an architect who works hand in glove with contemporary artists and who has shaped a lovely building for very little money.

"What we've been most concerned to do is to involve everyone locally. I've lived here for 23 years and we're still seen as newcomers, so it wouldn't be right to create a smart gallery for smart people, especially those who use the country as a plaything. The first show is called "Marking Presence" and involves both local people and artists doing just that. Artists like Anthony Gormley, Alison Wilding and Bill Woodrow will be interacting with videos involving people living here. I'm very excited about it. I know you hear a lot of talk of curators trying to break down barriers between experimental artists and a wider public, but I really think we can do that with the talents of avant-garde artists meeting the sensibilities and experiences of local people."

Being so close to the railway station means that Artsway will also be readily accessible to people living along the main railway line that runs from Waterloo to Bournemouth and Weymouth. As the gallery will be originating most of its own shows, it will undoubtedly attract a wide audience.

Tony Fretton, meanwhile, is busy designing a further two small and adventurous local galleries - or, at least, imaginative additions to them. One is in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, the other in Reading, beside the bravura Victorian barracks.

"There are further similar adventures in the pipeline," says Fretton, who is never going to get rich from such delightfully painstaking, small- scale projects. "I can imagine a whole chain of small public art galleries up and down the country that will bring new art from major cities and even around the world to local communities, as well as encouraging artists to originate shows in country towns rather than cities. And if we can get the balance right as architects, we can bring new sensibilities to rural design. I've no desire to force tough urban architecture on villages and other rural settings, but I feel we've got something to offer in place of the tired `vernacular-style' architecture you dislike so much."

Dislike and abhor. Abhor because such twittish design both spoils the look of old towns and villages and patronises local people as if to say, "If you must live in the country then you must have second-rate architecture." Art, too.

In a world in which professional rivalries, devilment and bitchery conspire to reign in major arts projects and in which there is no guarantee of half decent and long-term public funding, Artsway is a pragmatic answer to getting contemporary art out of city centres and around the country. In the hands of Fredericks and Fretton, it is also inspiredn

Artsway, Station Road, Lymington, Hampshire (01590 682260), open from 1 February