Meddle
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Contents: • • • • • •
Prologue (4p) Architecture + Me (5p) Architecture + World (11p) Transforming Tate (17p) Media Feedback (50p) Epilogue (51p)
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Prologue
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“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
— Oscar Wilde
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Rorschach Inkblot Test
What do you see? 6
What did you see?
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Architecture + Me I am a nomad with slight symptoms of ambivalence. I am a “homegrown” person without any feeling of home itself. I have several lives but I am not tied to any of them. I am an irrationally rational person. I was born in the late 80s a in post-soviet state of Georgia.Years later I immigrated to Russia and that’s where I got my first education. Architectural Institute in Moscow gave me a very valuable experience and helped forming my visions about what the architecture I never want to deal with was like. I also had a short-lived attempt of living in Germany. And now I’m here. In London. I remember the day I was introduced to architecture by my father. Memories of that day appear almost as episodes from muted blurred French films. I can’t reconstruct the whole picture of that day but I remember my emergent definition of architecture as Lego for adults. Surprisingly, I still think the same, but in a rather different and wider way. Architecture has never been something rather definite for me but it has always been something private and precious. It has always been in a state of a constant change. Architecture is creating new dimensions of reality perhaps to enrich the reality itself but it could as well absorb it and turn it into something completely opposite. It is the matter of perception I guess. 8
Architecture for me is neither an instrument for better living nor just art. I could call it “functional art” to some extent and “moneymaking tool” to another. I like to think that money is the last thing I am concerned about, but I wouldn’t lie to myself. “Money is a gas”, whether I like to admit it or not. And at this point a brilliant quote by H.G. Brown comes to my mind: “Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort.” I like to think that delicacy should be one of the criteria in judging architecture. Although the word judgement has a very bad impact on me. I remember the line from Griboedov’s “Woe from Wit” rhetorically asking whom is the judge. If it is me or you or anybody else, it is all subjective and opinion-based. Therefore it couldn’t be anywhere near neutral objectivity. But how do we define objectivity if everything we know is subjective to a certain extent?! Is objectivity something we call abstract subjectivity in order to justify our point of view and do not harm anyone’s feelings? Much likely. I have always been very opinionated, rebellious if you like. I have my own vision of “good or bad” of truth and beauty of light and dark. Does it make me who I am and does it make me subjective enough to be objective? I appreciate jeopardizing my own beliefs, that is the only way to test them. I appreciate exploring the potential of mind whether it leads to creation or to destruction.
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I might be more interested in the psychological aspect of architecture rather than in its “sustainable” or “scarce resources” realm. I may not want to call myself an architect after I have designed something out of mud and pebbles or something with rather low carbon footprint. I believe that architecture is something more than that. I have no intention in saving the planet as well. I am sure it could deal with us just as good as it has been doing it for millions of years. Ideally I would like to find my own niche and do things that I find interesting, touching, things that would speak for themselves. I would like to be myself in architecture, not to be any kind of mercenary but to have some financial stability, to serve my own principles, but not to be sold.
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"Everything is designed. Few things are designed well." ‎
— Brian Reed
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is it designed well?
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Architecture + World Architecture has always been walking hand in hand with the world in my opinion. It is not an invention in its conventional meaning. It has always been around in forms of primitive cave societies or early stronghold cities or medieval towns etc. But first of all, our planet is a piece of architecture itself. The Earth appears to be well designed from either theological or scientific perspectives. It has every feature we might need to describe architecture, but I am willing not to get into that. I think that in the last couple of centuries the role and the meaning of architecture, although it is a highly debatable thing, changed radically. It could have happened due to technological revolutions and progress of the human society, but there are several things that seem very egocentric nowadays and I believe that it has very little to do with certain aspects of progress.
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The image(glass ziggurat) that I have provided at the very beginning of this speculation is probably the best visual explanation of my latest thoughts. A Friend of mine, though she has nothing to do with architecture, briefly described that “iconic” building as “pile of rubbish”. Some might say that in different conditions you may get adequately different answers, but it is also a matter of perception and prejudice to my mind. However sometimes nothing can change one’s mind whether it is the first proposal by Herzog and De Meuron for the Tate Modern Extension made in 2006 or a fountain by the corner shop in Vatican designed by a local craftsman. I wonder how words “iconic”, “architecture” and “rubbish” found themselves next to each other in such a small paragraph. I doubt that is just a coincidence. We are much likely to appreciate things that unconsciously have certain value for us. If no one had ever doubted religion could we possibly have any atheist among us now? Or in architectural terms, if one shows you a project of any extraordinary famous architect without mentioning the artist’s name would you change your mind and opinion upon the subject after being told that it is a creation of a very well-known person? This phenomenon of prejudice and perception is scientifically described by a famous georgian psychologist D. Uznadze in his theory of Attitude and Set.
vs Herzog & De Meuron
Unknown Artist 14
We are used to admire things we are not even fully aware of because it is easier to accept rather than to deny. I have no respect towards most of shiny iconic exceptional pieces of architecture. I find them way too pretentious. This is how i see the relationship between architecture and the world right now: architecture is excluding itself from its origin and is turning into a snobby detached egoist materia and the world on the other side is trying to buy this yet finalizing product in order to make it world’s belonging, legacy if you like. Tate Modern is a subject that I consider as a major subject or an issue of my continuous debate and monologue. I chose it for several reasons, firstly because of my deep love for industrial buildings and here I would like to mention Battersea Power Station as well, but my exceptional emotions for modern art made my decision for me. Art itself should be controversial and provocative, it should touch you and it must move you but the substance of modern art is something yet outrageous for me. A chair in a large white exhibition space, two brushstrokes on canvas and MAXXI museum, is that it? And now we are investing more than 200 million pounds to multiply those pieces, fair choice I think. The proposal by Herzog and De Meuron is a project worth around £215m, 11-storey, origami-like brick-clad pyramid. Which is expected to change our understanding of modern art and link it closer to society, engage with all sorts of artists. The presentation of “DreamTate” is following:
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“Transforming Tate Modern� Herzog & De Meuron
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Reasons For Transformation “Tate Modern was designed for an annual audience of 2 million visitors. It now receives around 5 million visitors each year. This success has put pressure on existing facilities and programme. Different kinds of gallery spaces are needed to better display the works in the Collection. Film, video, photography and performance have become more essential strands of artistic practice, and artists have embraced new technologies. Ambitious and imaginative installations are now pushing traditional gallery spaces to their limits.”
Ideal Opportunity To Change “The opening of Tate Modern in May 2000 was intended as the first stage in the development of the former Bankside Power Station. It was always envisaged that the derelict oil tanks and the switch station to the south of the site could eventually be integrated into the gallery. The electrical switch station is still used to power a large part of the City and South London. EDF, who own the station, are modernising their equipment so it will take up a smaller part of the building. This provides the ideal opportunity to expand Tate Modern, with the oil tanks forming the foundation of the new building.”
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Aim “The expansion will create a less congested, more welcoming environment. The exhibition and display space will be almost doubled, enabling us to show more of our Collection. There will be more cafes, terraces and concourses in which to meet and unwind. Learning will be at the heart of the new Tate Modern, reflecting Tate's commitment to increasing public knowledge and understanding of art. There will be a range of new facilities throughout the building for deeper engagement with art: interpretation, discussion, private study, participation, workshops and practice based learning.”
Engaging Community “Tate Modern is part of the neighbourhood. Its presence has made a major contribution to the ongoing revitalisation of Southwark, and it recognises the importance of building strong links with the local community. The Transforming Tate Modern project will be a catalyst for engaging local audiences more deeply and broadening access to the museum. The new development will continue to bolster the growth of the borough. A public walkway through the building will make possible a direct route from the City to the heart of Southwark. There will be two new public squares to the south and west of the building. To the east, a new planted area will be created especially for the use of the local community and staff.” 19
Extension masterplan Area development
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Architects “Herzog & de Meuron was founded in Basel by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. It now has offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid and New York. The practice has received international acclaim and awards for its innovative work, including the Pritzker Prize in 2001, the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2003, and the RIBA Gold Medal in 2007. Recent projects include the new de Young Museum in San Francisco (2005), the National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (2008) and The Philharmonic Hall, Hamburg (2009).�
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About the project “New development will transform Tate Modern. An iconic new building will be added at the south of the existing gallery. It will create more spaces for displaying the Collection, performance and installation art and learning, all allowing visitors to engage more deeply with art, as well as creating more social spaces for visitors to unwind and relax in the gallery. It will redefine the museum for the twenty first century, placing artists and their art at its centre while fully integrating the display, learning and social functions of the museum, and strengthening links between the museum, its community and the City.�
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Design “The new building will sit to the south of Tate Modern. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, it will rise from behind the power station as a new iconic addition to the London skyline. It will present a striking combination of the raw and the refined, found industrial spaces and 21st century architecture. The façade will use brick to match the surface of the existing structure, while creating something radically new – a perforated brick lattice through which the interior lights will glow in the evening. Windows and the terrace will appear as cuts in the brick surface. The building will rise 64.5 metres above ground in 11 levels, its height responding to the iconic chimney of Giles Gilbert Scott's power station. If the Turbine Hall was the defining emblem of Tate Modern's first stage, the vast oil tanks, at the base of the building, will become as closely associated with the new building. These raw industrial spaces will retain their roughedged atmosphere to become an unforgettable performance and exhibition venue. Beautiful new galleries displaying the Collection will have a greater variation of sizes and shapes than the original museum, and there will be a larger space for temporary exhibitions. Tate Exchange will enable groups to exchange skills and ideas, there will be new seminar spaces, and a cutting-edge Media Lab. Social spaces will include a new Members Room, a Level 10 restaurant, and a public terrace on Level 11 all with outstanding views across the capital.”
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The existing Tate Modern building and surrounding area
The unused switch station on the south side of the building
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The oil tanks, once part of the old power station
The structure of the new vertical building
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The transformed Tate Modern Š by Herzog & de Meuron
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Sustainability “The building will be a model of environmental sustainability, setting new benchmarks for museums and galleries in the UK. It will draw much of its energy needs from heat emitted by EDF's transformers in the adjoining operational switch house. With a high thermal mass, frequent use of natural ventilation, and utilisation of daylight, the new building will use 54% less energy and generate 44% less carbon than current building regulations demand.�
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Sustainability Measures
The building will reuse waste heat emitted by the adjacent power station transformers. EDF Energy transformers, Bankside
Water pumped from underground river terrace gravel layers will cool the building. Borehole drilling investigation works on the construction site
The building will have a high thermal mass and it will automatically let in cold air at night for free cooling through the windows and faรงade of the new building
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Uniquely for an art gallery, a 4-metre-wide desiccant wheel will dry gallery air to preserve the art on display. The gallery spaces on Level 4
The building maximises the use of natural daylight to minimise artificial lighting. The new day-lit bridge on Level 5
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“Displayability” “There will be three new floors of flexible gallery spaces, enabling 60% more artworks from the Collection to go on display. The growing Collection Over the last ten years, the Collection has not only grown considerably in number, but it has also developed in other ways, reflecting broader changes in contemporary art. Film, video, photography and performance have become more essential strands of artistic practice, and artists have also embraced new technologies. At the same time, the Collection has taken a more global perspective, encompassing work from Latin America, Asia and Africa.”
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Potential “Large exhibition suite There will be a large 5.85 metre-high exhibition suite in the new building which will ease the crush in blockbuster exhibitions and will allow extensive career surveys to be shown as a seamless whole. The suite will be flexible, for example in one season showing a single large-scale exhibition, whilst in the next showing a mid-scale exhibition alongside a related display from the Collection.�
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Exhibition Spaces “Two levels of Collection galleries There will be a wide range of distinctive gallery spaces. Level 4 will feature smaller-scale, intimate galleries which will offer the potential for a quieter and more contemplative experience of the Collection. These galleries will be dedicated to works on paper, small-scale sculpture and photography. The display programme in the smaller galleries will include groups of individual artist's works from the Collection, small thematic displays, and iconic works.�
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Exhibition Spaces “The galleries on Level 5 will feature high ceilings and natural daylight, creating a very different type of space to the flexible exhibition suite and smaller-scale intimate galleries. This level also forms the crossroads of the gallery, physically linking to the existing Tate Modern galleries via a high level bridge spanning the Turbine Hall.Visitors will be able to see loan exhibitions in both buildings presented in dialogue with the Collection, in a wider range of configurations and in a changing rhythm.�
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Exhibition Spaces “A dedicated children's gallery There will be a dedicated children's gallery in the new building, programmed for 5–12 year olds. It will be a space to let children, as well as adults, feel that Tate Modern is theirs to explore. The display programme will focus on inspiring young minds to look and think differently about art. It will show key themes and concepts about art and the creative process. To help younger audiences engage with the Collection, works will be specially selected and supported by handling objects and practical activities.”
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Exhibition Spaces “Performance and installation spaces The three oil tanks at the foundation of the new building will become a unique setting for artists' installations and performances, including dance, music, the spoken word and film.
The oil tanks Ambitious and imaginative installations are pushing traditional gallery spaces to their limits. When Tate Modern opened in 2000 there were 86 large-scale installations in the Collection; now there are more than 300. The three awe-inspiring oil tanks at the foundation of the new building will provide a unique raw industrial space to display large-scale artists' installations, as well as performances and film. Three new galleries will also be created from raw 'as-found' spaces adjacent to the oil tanks. Space which would have originally contained Bankside Power Station's ancillary plant and equipment.�
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Exhibition Spaces “Installation programme in the new spaces Tank 1 will be programmed with changing displays, exhibitions and radical commissions of contemporary art. Tank 2 will be used for performances and events, complementing the display programme in Tank 1. Supporting facilities such as green rooms will be located in Tank 3. Taken together, the oil tanks and 'as-found' galleries will place the exploration of contemporary visual art practice, and its resonance in performance and contemporary thought, at the foundation of the transformed Tate Modern.�
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Learning And Exchange “Learning spaces A new range of facilities will place learning at the heart of the new Tate Modern, reflecting Tate's commitment to increasing public knowledge and understanding of art.�
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Learning And Exchange “Integrated learning and gallery spaces Since Tate Modern was built, audiences have asked for more information and more interactive engagement with art. Transformed Tate Modern gives us the opportunity to integrate high-quality spaces for learning and interpretation with the gallery and performances spaces. These facilities, interspersed among the gallery spaces, will provide groups and individuals a space for discussion and reflection in view of the galleries, and the opportunity to engage with practical activities and programmes.�
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Learning And Exchange “Tate Exchange: dedicated learning and research facilities Tate Exchange will provide a dedicated suite of learning and research spaces for visitors, groups, visual arts professionals and staff across two floors of the new building. There will be a large interactive study centre, with an open study area at its heart, specifically designed for groups to exchange skills and discuss ideas. There will also be space to view film from the archives. Here visitors will have the opportunity to create and share digital works, and exchange knowledge and ideas with other visitors, students and professionals. A new studio space will enable groups to make works at scale, developing participants' understanding of artistic practice and improving critical skills by exploring the diversity of process and materials. A small gallery will be located adjacent to the studio, where these works can be showcased. Across both floors, there will be a range of flexible workshop, seminar and personal research spaces.�
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Learning And Exchange “Learning spaces for young people There will be a dedicated space for Tate Modern's Raw Canvas youth programme. This space will be 'owned' and managed by the Raw Canvas team and will include a flexible lounge area with access to digital resources and the adjacent studio and display spaces. It will be available to all Young Tate programme participants.�
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Social Integration “Social spaces There will be different and exceptional places to meet and unwind at Tate Modern.Visitors will be able to enjoy incredible views while eating, drinking and relaxing in the new restaurant, browse in the new shops and soak up the atmosphere in the public spaces, both inside and outside the new building.�
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Social Integration “Landscaped spaces outside the new building A new walkway through the building will link the City to the heart of Southwark. Two landscaped areas either side of the building will provide tranquil places for everyone to use. There will be an elegant piazza with a café and bookshop, adjoined by an undulated landscape of trees and lawns and a large area to the west will offer a peaceful setting where visitors and local residents can sit and relax. A new planted area on the eastern side will be created for the use of the local community and staff. The landscape facing the river remains and will continue to be used for large-scaled events.”
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Social Integration “Social spaces in the new building The top three floors of the new building are spaces dedicated to the enjoyment of all our visitors. At the top of the building the public terrace will offer spectacular views over the River Thames and the restaurant below will provide great food and wine. A new Tate Members lounge will meet the needs of our growing membership. Divided into different areas, the lounge will offer spaces for eating, spaces for families to relax and areas for the quiet reflection of your visit, with further views across the river.�
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Social Integration “A ceremonial boulevard winds up through the new building with small landings and enclaves for more private meeting places and resting points.�
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Public Accessibility Live on site information is available for public on http://www.tate.org.uk/modern
Various events regarding transformation are taking place in Tate to engage with audiences
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Media Guardian’s Jonathan Glancey writes an article “ Why Tate Modern’s extension stacks up” “When Tate Modern opened in 2000, visitor numbers were expected to be 1.8 million a year at tops. Almost a decade on, the figure is 4.6 million. Even though Tate Modern's home, the former Bankside power station, is a colossus, the sheer number of people visiting throughout the year has made an extension almost inevitable. Today, the London Borough of Southwark approved plans for Tate Modern 2, an 11-storey, brick-clad pyramid – of sorts – designed by Herzog and de Meuron, the Swiss architects who transformed the redundant power station across the Thames from Wren's St Paul's Cathedral nearly a decade ago. The extension, a dramatic origami-like unfolding of brick and glass, may yet take some while to open. The total cost is expected to be £215m and, currently, there is a shortfall of some £145m to contend with. Of the £50m granted by central government, £10m has already been spent on the minutiae of the planning process. Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, suggests a completion date of 2013 or 2014 as more realistic than 2012 – although Westminster and Greater London Authority politicians, at least, would be cock-a-hoop if TM2, as it's known, were to open at the same time as the much hyped London Olympics. Zaha Hadid's aquatic centre aside, the games seem unlikely to be remembered for the quality of their architecture, its urban planning or for what politicians and quango folk like to call its "legacy". TM2 has already been redesigned. First revealed in 2006, the original design was for a Mad Max-style glass ziggurat. Thought of as a bit too showy, this has since been adjusted to a current design which, clad in brick, pays homage of sorts to the great brick mass of Bankside. A redesign was also necessary to enable the Tate to make use of the three vast oil tanks lurking under the building; these daunting spaces are to be used for performances, galleries and offices. They will be some of the most unexpected interiors in London, reached by ramps winding down from an entrance in the side of the Turbine Hall in TM1. Above this, the new building will rise in tiers, some solid, others perforated, up 11 floors of galleries, culminating in a 150-seat restaurant on the 10th floor and a public viewing gallery on the 11th. As with a ziggurat, the floors get smaller as the building goes up. In stark contrast to the voluminous horizontal spread of TM1, it is a vertical stack. Ramps, spiral stairs and eight lifts will link the various floors and levels. The column-free gallery space inside will increase Tate Modern's ability to display artworks by some 65%. That TM2 will be a hugely popular attraction there should be no doubt. If the design is well crafted and as dramatic as it could be, it will prove itself a happily eccentric addition to the London skyline. And to have a tower dedicated to art rather than another temple dedicated to Mammon will be as much a delight as a relief.”
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Epilogue
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The original glass ziggurat proposal was awarded planning permission in March 2007 and structural consultants Ramboll Whitbybird were appointed to the Herzog & De Meuron led design team. However The Tate Museum insisted on a number of changes to the design in response to a revised brief. As seen in the afore-stated presentation the core of the new extension are three oil tanks of the former power station which will be retained as art galleries and from which the new building will rise. In the previous scheme, by contrast, those tanks were used as an auditorium and for other facilities. Now those oil tanks lead directly into the famous Turbine Hall and these interconnecting spaces will become the foundation of new ambitious plan. According to those changes the closer relationship between old and new is underlined in the perforated brick skin faรงade, which as seen on the renders is expected to glow at night.
inappropriate?
appropriate? 52
Also they want us to believe that the new building will be more compact than in the previous scheme, which as seen from the beautiful render was built up of stacked glass boxes. They also claim that the new configuration is much more flexible to allow future changes in the programme. Consequently, the new shiny brick-clad madness will tower 65 metres above ground in 11 levels and will add an additional 21,500 sq metres to Tate Modern's existing 35,000 sq metres. A sweeping ceremonial route will rise up through the floors providing a connecting path through the galleries and offering stunning views over London.
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Nevertheless, here we are facing Tate Modern’s ambitious proposal and the very obvious thing is that those architects had met all the visible and invisible, written and bespoken criteria to succeed. But is that really it? Was this extension really an emergency? However there are yet no right answers for such things and they will never be, so I should carry on with my unfolded subjectivity. It is all clear with the number of visitors and overcrowded spaces during major events, but moving through the “old” Tate leaves a slight unsatisfactory feeling in me. First of all I would like to question what is happening with the Turbine Hall? Is such a huge space used in a rather efficient way? Or is it a place that is going to be filled with sunflower seeds occasionally? I find it ridiculous and not worth millions of pounds to be spend on. Tate’s bookshop is another issue for me, I do understand the need for commerce, but could it be placed elsewhere nearby or outside? I also doubt the fact that permanent exhibition at Tate should be that permanent, I reckon that most people interested in modern art have seen it all at least a couple of times, so why not use the principle of rotation? 54
Another point against the ziggurat is truly an aesthetic thing. Does it really suit South Bank Power Station only because of the matching brick colour they are clad with? Perhaps origami is some sort of phenomenon of British culture? In this case I could easily imagine any ziggurat clad in white stone or marble attached to Saint Paul’s as an extension. There seems to be no obstacles for it to be built any time soon. I might be convinced by how wide, broad and deep their presentation appears to be and that they clearly have backed the initial brief, however I am definitely not convinced by their onceglass now-brick ziggurat. Even though I am against any labels in architecture I am on “contextual modernist’s” side I guess, and I would like to believe this certain definition stands for delicacy and prudence with which our aims should be tackled. I believe that it all derived from a certain approach made by certain architects. Although it could have been different. Thereby I’d like to mention the scheme proposed by Alex Maclaren, whom perhaps is not starry or famous enough to realize her plan, nevertheless it is as worth to be looked at rather carefully: “Concurrently with my work, a Donald Judd retrospective arrived at the Tate Modern in London. Judd’s obsession with proportion, relationships of space to void, and especially colour, came to influence the project greatly.”
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“The Tate Modern, Bankside, is a building that is many things to many people. It has been a power station. Now it is an art gallery. For me, it is a grand stately home in the centre of London, in need of a Garden. The proposals are guided by a personal interest in the friction between landscape and city, an interest in the design of open spaces and public parks, and how these are inhabited by the public the seek to serve”
“The area directly behind the Tate Modern is developed as a built version of the column and canopy architecture, borrowing a timber aesthetic from the surrounding tree urbanism, and exploiting the structural and environmental capabilities of modern engineered timber construction.”
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“This building of two columned halls is a Contested space, surrounded by the differing social and political demands of private enterprise and commerce to the south, public anarchy to the west, and a semi-public curated culture to the north. The architecture revels in these proximities of city and nature, public and private, real and artificial.” “The 'interiors' of the tree blocks must have a relationship to the interior of the building proposal. The landscape interiors were very different: being in the 'forest' was unlike being in the 'grove'. I was interested in capturing the differences between these experiences: the girth of the trunks, the space between them, density and planting patterns of each tree. The height above ground of the foliage canopy, the transparency or solidity of this canopy, and the delicacy of the branch and leaf structure. All these factors could be translated directly to an architectural element of a building. The diameter of columns, a column grid, the height and weight and opacity of the ceiling, the visual complexity or simplicity of materials.”
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“The project became, internally, an investigation into the moderation of the 'column/canopy' elements inspired by the tree landscapes. The building footprint is broadly split into two halves: a hall of elegant, slim columns with a high, skylit roof, and a cavern of solid, broad columns with a dense heavy ceiling. Within these fields we find peculiarities: a sunken 'forest' of implausibly tall columns sinking deep into the ground which we can peer down into or gaze up from; a 'clearing', courtyard flanked by columns; and different anomalies within the regular grid caused by site or programmatic demands.�
It may look slightly too romantic or naive to some extent and perhaps not so resolved and ambitious as Herzog & De Meuron’s one, but I must admit that I am more impressed by that rather than ziggurat. At least it might be because she is not trying to defeat power station in order to show off and be egocentric self-admiring designer. Not to put herself in the first place. 58
Architecture is a highly commercial thing these days. We design to sell and we sell to design just like we try to be cool to be paid and to be paid to be cool. Architects are linked in a “food chain” but not in a very convenient place though. I do understand this notion of being very rich and famous, I could even accept this insatiable desire for vanity but it all leaves the feeling of being at a carnival of egocentrism with dozens of architectural icons selling their goods in front of their caravans. Looks like a very promising and extremely optimistic future, doesn’t it? Sometimes I wish I could be just a passenger looking out for the world through my window, although architecture should not leave you completely neutral if you want to stay in business.
“An important work of architecture will create polemics.” — Richard Meier
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MANIFESTO?!
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