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Comment: Makeover is simply better
Rowan Moore, Architecture Critic18 Jul 2008
The new version of the Tate's proposed extension is not just a tweaking of the previous design, it is a complete makeover.
While it is still a pyramidal tower, what was a glassy pile of boxes has become brick and smooth-skinned.
This reflects the fact that the first proposal was something of a speculative punt, conceived so the Tate could start fundraising and establish its position with the planners.
At this it was triumphantly successful, winning £50million of public money and planning permission for what might have been a controversial proposal, given its size.
But the design had too many architectural ideas: it was a pyramid, a tower, a crystal, a pile of boxes.
The new version is still emphatic, a hefty, hard-to-miss brick tower, but it is less agitated. It is no longer a battle of design ideas.
The big move is to use the same material as that of the old power station that houses Tate Modern, while using it to make a brick building such as has never been seen before. The bricks hover. Light shines through them. Brick walls are folded like paper... futuristic.
It is also almost certainly cheaper than the elaborate earlier version, which was to be clad in expensive cast glass.
Quite simply, the design has got better.
