Tate Modern topic proposal 200-300 words - Essay Example

Topic Proposal The building chosen as the for the intended dissertation is 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 profusely visited art galleries of the UK. The building is an astonishing blend of the old and the new. It was actually an unused and abandoned power station designed in 1947 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, until it was chosen as the sight for a Modern Art Gallery by the Tate Group in 1996.

It were the architects Herzog & de Meuron who designed the building under consideration, choosing to leave the inherent vitality and energy of the original building as it was, while looking for new ways to accentuate and highlight those features. As it goes with the character of 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 emphasizing it through the usage of renovations like 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 and de Meuron in the case of Tate Modern was primarily conceptual and not design oriented. In that context, Tate Modern suggests an entire new approach towards architecture that is innovative, believing in extending new meanings and forms to the old through the incorporation of novel trends and creativity and no doubt pragmatically aspiring for cost effectiveness.

Preliminary Bibliography Miles, Malcolm & Hall, Tim (eds.) 2003, Urban Futures, Routledge, London. Moore, Rowan & Ryan, Raymund 2000, Building Tate Modern: Herzog and De Meuron with Giles Gilbert Scott, Tate Publishing, London. Sabbaqh, Karl 2000, Power into Art: Creating the Tate Modern, Bankside, Allen Lane, London. Sennott, R Stephen (ed.) 2004, Encyclopaedia of 20th Century Architecture (Volume 2), Fitzroy Dearborn, New York. Wilson, Simon 2000, Tate Modern: The Guide, Tate Publishing, London.