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First view: a new angle to the Tate Modern extension
Valentine Low, Evening Standard18 Jul 2008
A plan for a glass ziggurat to house the £215 million extension to the Tate Modern has been dropped.
Under a radically revised design unveiled today, instead of a series of glass-covered cubes the new building will be a part-pyramid covered in a brickwork lattice. The brickwork is designed to make it greener, while vast oil tanks underneath the building are to be converted into exhibition spaces.
The changes, made in response to pressure from artists and Tate trustees, mean the gallery must reapply for planning permission from Southwark council, which approved the original idea last year. Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota called the initial designs "spectacular" and the scheme got a boost in December when ministers awarded it a £ 50million grant.
The new plans were drawn up by Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects responsible for turning Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's original Bankside power station into the Tate Modern.
The most visible change is in the use of brick, in the shape of a perforated screen to allow light in and make the extension more heat-efficient. The extension, 11 storeys and 65 metres high, will increase Tate Modern's floorspace from 35,000 to 56,500 square metres.
Originally designed to cope with two million visitors a year, the gallery now has more than five million, which leads to crowding at weekends.
Two of the three oil tanks, 60 feet in diameter and 20 feet high, will be used to showart and will link to the Turbine Hall, with interconnecting spaces forming the backbone of the new Tate Modern. There will be two new public spaces: a square modelled as a city piazza and gardens for families and children.
The project is due to be completed in 2012. Apart from the government grant, the Tate has so far received £7million from the London Development Agency and £10 million from the private sector. More fundraising will begin in autumn.
Reader views (4)
As I predicted in an article written 2 years ago, the randomness of the design meant that it will be open to modifications in response to different external pressures. Will that change with the new scheme? I doubt it.
- Karl Sharro, London, 15/08/2008 12:27
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I think this is better - there are opportunities for the cladding to provide interest close up, something glazed facades fail to do, and allows different scales of interaction with the architecture. It reminds me of the de Young Museum by Herzog and de Meuron again in San Francisco which is quite stunning.
- Jonas, Hong Kong, 19/07/2008 04:22
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Looks as though a piece of the De Young museum was transported to London.
- Mattia, San Francisco, 18/07/2008 21:21
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Oh dear what a shame...it is certainly 'in keeping' but not radical, challenging and exciting...and that, surely, is what Tate Modern has always been about?
- Nick, London, 18/07/2008 11:57
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