Set design & art direction · London
We decide which way things fall.
Lateral Hall builds rooms for campaigns, editorial shoots and film. Each room keeps one rule of its own, and everything in it obeys.
Room 01 · Gravity down
Selected rooms, 2023–2026
Rooms that lean
Room 02 · Gravity left
What we build
Four ways in
01
Set design
Rooms, built to the frame. We draw them, model them in card, then build them at full size.
02
Art direction
One rule per project, held from the first sketch to the final retouch.
03
Props and surfaces
Sourced, made or aged by hand: plaster, linen, oak, glass, paper.
04
Build and strike
Our crew builds in your studio or ours, and leaves the floor as we found it.
01 · Brief
One call, one page. We ask what should fall, and where.
02 · Model
A card model at 1:20, photographed with the real lens.
03 · Build
Usually three to five days, depending on the room.
04 · Strike
Everything comes down the same day the last frame is shot.
Counted, not claimed
212
rooms built since 2014
11
days, on average, from brief to first frame
1
rule per room
Said on set
“They asked one question on the first call: which wall is the floor? Everything after that was easy.”
Ines Varga-Holt · Photographer
“The model they shot at 1:20 was so close to the final room that we used it to plan the lighting.”
Tomasz Reyhill · Director of photography
“Nothing in the room was glued down by accident. You could feel the rule.”
Maud Ellery-Sands · Fashion editor
Before you call
Questions we hear
Do you work outside London?
Yes. We build in rented studios across Europe and travel with a crew of four to eight.
How early should we call?
Three weeks before the shoot is comfortable. One week is possible for a single room.
Can you work with our photographer?
Almost always. We share the 1:20 model and the lens plan before we build.
Do you keep the sets?
No. Materials go back to suppliers, to storage or to the next room.
What does a room cost?
It depends on size and build days. We send a fixed quote after the brief.