Tate Modern Outline - Essay Example

ORDER No: 5551441 TATE MODERN – A SHOWCASE FOR INTERNATIONAL MODERN ART TOPIC PROPOSAL The building topic chosen for discussion is the Tate Modern. Tate Modern is one of the most innovative and ingenious Modern Art museums in the world. Tate Modern is located in London, on the banks of the river Thames and is one of the most frequently visited art galleries in the United Kingdom. The building is an astonishing blend of the old and the new. It was formerly an unused and abandoned power station, designed in 1947 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, until it was chosen as the site for a Modern Art Gallery by the Tate Group in 1996. The architectural practice Herzog & de Meuron designed the building under consideration, choosing to leave the inherent vitality and energy of the original as it was, while looking for new ways to accentuate and highlight those features. As was fitting with a building intended to house Modern Art, Herzog & de Meuron decided in favour of retaining the quintessentially urban and industrial character of the original building. However, they extended full expression to their creative genius by delicately emphasising it through the use of imaginative renovations such as light paintwork, polished concrete, excellent lighting and unpretentious wooden floors. The result was the creation of an architectural ambience that relied for its originality on the pleasing contrast of the industrial boldness of the original building with the tasteful temperament of the new additions. It would not be wrong to say that the approach of Herzog & de Meuron, in the case of Tate Modern, was primarily conceptual and not design oriented. In that context, Tate Modern suggests an entirely new approach towards architecture that is innovative, believing in extending new meanings and forms to the old, through incorporation of novel trends and creativity as well as pragmatically aspiring for cost effectiveness. Preliminary Bibliography Miles, M & Hall, T. eds., 2003. Urban Features. London: Routledge Moor, R. & Ryan, R., 2000. Building Tate Modern: Herzog & de Meuron with Giles Gilbert Scott, London: Tate Publishing. Sabbaqh, K., 2000. Power into Art: Creating the Tate Modern, Bankside, London: Allen Lane. Sennott, R. S. ed., 2004. Encyclopaedia of 20th Century Architecture. (Volume 2), New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. Wilson, S., 2000. Tate Modern: The Guide, London: Tate Publishing. 2. OUTLINE 2.1. Background The Tate Gallery was conceived in 1889 when Sir Henry Tate offered his collection of modern British art to the National Gallery, with provisos which included a new building in Millbank. 2.2. History By the 1990s the Millbank building – which housed the Tate Collection: an assemblage of British art from the 16th century and a collection of international art – was no longer adequate and new premises were needed. 2.3. An exciting opportunity presents itself It was decided to look for an existing building which could be converted. Bankside Power Station – designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott – became redundant in 1981. A huge building of considerable architectural merit, opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral and adjacent to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, offered an exciting solution. 2.4. An idea takes shape Once the concept was accepted, plans were made for a footbridge across the river to the City of London, which resonated with the fact that the Millbank building was also on the river. 2.5. The search for an architect An international competition was held to find an architect. Out of the 148 entrants – including some of the most renowned names – the relatively unknown small Swiss practice of Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron was selected. 2.6. Building the dream The building compriss a turbine hall and boiler house, the former becoming an impressive entrance and the latter a suite of galleries occupying three floors, topped by a glass penthouse. 2.7. The exhibitions In addition to its permanent collection, Tate Modern hosts exhibitions of internationally known artists such as Frida Kahlo [Mexican] 2005, Paul Gauguin [French] 2010, Joan Miro [Spanish] 2011 and Damien Hirst [British] 2012. 3. DRAFT CHAPTER BUILDING THE DREAM Bankside Power Station has had a long and chequered history. Originally operated by the City of London Electric Lighting Company Ltd. The coal fired power station began life in 1891 and was a typical 19th century large industrial building, comprising two sheds which contained the eighteen boilers and “a third building to the west housed the generators and electrical switchgear” (Murray, 2010). The building proved extremely unpopular in the locality due to the amount of noise caused by the transport of the coal and ash, and the pollution resulting from its eighteen chimneys. The building was upgraded from 1921 to 1928 in order to improve its efficiency and increase its output. During the latter stages of World War II two competing requirements became evident: the desire to improve the amenities and appearance of post-war London, and the need to increase electricity supply by the construction of a number of new power stations (Murray, 2010). Proposals to achieve these aims were drawn up in 1945 and debated until early January 1947. The exceptionally cold winter of 1947 sealed the issue: Bankside was to be rebuilt, despite objections that it would spoil the view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, cause unacceptable pollution and interfere with planned industrial development on the South Bank. A compromise was reached by moving the proposed building back from the waterfront and designing it to be fuelled by oil instead of coal (CAB, 1947). The new power station was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and building work began in 1947. The building programme was carried out in two stages, from 1947-53 which saw the completion of the “western half and the chimney…The old power station was decommissioned and demolished in 1959 and the eastern end built in 1959-63” (Murray, 2010). The finished structure was 200m long comprising a steel frame with an outer skin of bricks; it had originally been intended to use bricks throughout, but wartime damage to buildings and shortage of capacity meant that this would not be possible. The roof was of reinforced concrete, and the whole was graced by a single slender chimney 99m tall into which the outlet flues from the four oil-fired generators were grouped. The height of the tower was dictated by the need not to diminish the spire of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which stood immediately opposite the power station on the opposite bank of the Thames. Complaints about air pollution rumbled on for nearly twenty years when, due – among other factors – to the increased price of oil, Bankside became uneconomical to operate and it was closed in 1981. The future of the power station remained unresolved for another twelve years and, during this period, a battle raged as to what should be done with it. Many were in favour of demolition, and by 1993 this had begun. Others fought to have it preserved; deemed too new to be listed [unlike Battersea] it was now seen to be something of major architectural significance, and so worthy of preservation. The only question was “as what?” The answer lay in the overcrowding of the Millbank building. By 1992 it had been decided to acquire – by the millennium – a permanent or temporary building capable of housing the Tate collection of modern art (The National Archives, 1992-1994). This led to the acquisition, in 1994 by the Tate Gallery, of the Bankside Power Station for that purpose (Spalding, 1998; Miles & Hall). Later in the same year, following an international competition, with initially 148 entrants - later reduced to a shortlist of 13 and then to 6 - to find an architect to design the new building, the judges selected the Swiss practice of Jacques Hertzog & Pierre de Meuron whose concept aimed at conserving the integrity of Gilbert Scott’s imposing design as well as the “soaring central chimney” (Tate, 1999; Moore & Ryan, 2000). Galleries are distributed over three floors with the addition of a two-floor glass structure extending over the whole of the length of the roof which, when illuminated, will provide an outstanding addition to the visual aspect of the building. Among the other design innovations was the use of the old turbine hall as an impressive entrance to the building, while the boiler house provided space for the exhibition galleries (Sennott, 2004). The cost of the enterprise was £134 million towards which grants were made of £50 million from the Millennium Commission, £12 million from English partnerships [to acquire the site], £6.2 million from the Arts Council as well as extensive fundraising (The National Archives, 1994-2000; Tate, 1999). In early 1998 “Lars Nittve was appointed to the post of Director of Tate Gallery of Modern Art, joining the Tate from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark…[and in 1999] the Tate Gallery of Modern Art was renamed Tate Modern” (The National Archives, 1986-2002). As part of the rebranding strategy it was decided to abandon the familiar method of exhibiting “works chronologically and by school...[and] will show international modern art from the Collection in themed groups…[which] will allow displays to cut across movements and disciplines” (Tate, 1999). The building opened to the public on 12 May 2000. The total internal floor area of the building was 34,000 m2 with an available display space of 14,000 m2 (Tate, 1999; Wilson, 2000). In art as in many other things progress does not stand still. When originally conceived the building which opened in 2000 was designed to cater for 2 million visitors. Tate Modern, connected to the north bank of the Thames by the millennium footbridge (Sabbaqh, 2000), accessible to St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, the Royal Festival Hall and other historic London buildings, and within a short river trip of Tate Britain at Millbank, proved such an attractive venue that by 2009 some 5 million people were passing through the building. Also, exhibition requirements were changing and different types of space were needed. Additionally more space was required so that more works of art could be removed from storage and placed on display (Tate, 2010). Accordingly, the architects Herzog & de Meuron were asked to provide a scheme to fulfil these requirements. Much of the space required was available in the area occupied by the oil tanks of the old power station, the area south of the present building; and the old switch house which, although still used to house an electricity sub-station, could contribute space due to the use of more compact modern equipment. General approval for an extension to Tate Modern was given by the Greater London Authority (2007), and the architects subsequently submitted detailed proposals, which were approved by Southwark Council in March 2009 (Tate, 2010). The first proposal advanced by Herzog & de Meuron (2006) to include a huge irregular building – described as a cut glass ziggurat – although defended by the Director Sir Nicholas Serota, proved to be too ‘avant garde’ ,met with considerable opposition on the grounds that it would dominate and clash with other equally important buildings, was abandoned and ‘toned down’ by the architects to consist of a brick pyramidal structure with spaces between the bricks to provide an exciting light feature when the interior lights were switched on after dark (Sennott, 2004). “The new building will provide over 5,000 m2 of new gallery space and over 1,300 m2 of new space for learning programmes. The project is due to be completed in 2012 at an estimated cost of £215 million at 2012 prices” (Tate, 2010). As a gesture to kickstart the new development the London Development Agency provided £7 million towards the cost of the alterations to the substation, and so far Tate Modern “has raised £76.5 million, which represents a third of the overall costs” (Tate, 2010). This exciting new development is intended to coincide with the 2012 London Olympics, and will be accompanied by considerable improvements and extensions to the surrounding access routes and residential developments in the area. 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY Blazwick, I. & Wilson, S. eds., 2000. Tate Modern: The Handbook. California: University of California Press. Davidson, H., Herzog, J. & de Meuron, P., (n.d.). The Tate Modern Project. Tate Modern, [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/transformingtm/design.htm [Accessed 15 July 2011]. Cabinet Office Minutes 1947. Proposed Erection of a Power Station at Bankside: Meeting 1, 130/20. Greater London Authority, 2007. Tate Modern extension, Bankside. Planning report PDU/1464/02. Miles, M. & Hall, T. eds., 2003. Urban Futures, London: Routledge. Moore, R. & Ryan, R., 2000. Building Tate Modern: Herzog and de Meuron with Giles Gilbert Scott, London: Tate Publishing Murray, S., 2010. The rise, fall and transformation of Bankside power station 1890-2010. Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society. [online] Available at: http://www.glias.org.uk/gliasepapers/bankside.html [Accessed 16 July 2011]. Sabbaqh, K., 2000. Power into Art: Creating the Tate Modern, Bankside, London: Allen Lane. Sennott, R. S. ed., 2004. Encyclopaedia of 20th Cent Architecture. (Volume 2), New York: FitzroyDearborn. Spalding, F., 1998. The Tate: A History. London: Tate Gallery Publishing. Tate, 1999. Tate Modern, Press Release, 6 October 1999. Tate, 2010. Transforming Tate Modern. Press Release, 6 January 2010. The National Archives, 1986-2002. Tate Gallery: Tate Modern Project, Papers and correspondences. Wilson, S., 2000. Tate Modern: The Guide, London: Tate Publishing. Read More