The new face of the Tate Modern is the Switch House: an expansion on the famous London art museum designed by Herzog & De Meuron and inaugurated just in time for summer 2016.
Architects Herzog & De Meuron planned the first major transformation of the Tate Modern, and now they have created an expansion for the famous London art museum. In 2000 the Swiss architectural studio planned the conversion of the power plant on the Thames into the main body of the Tate Modern, an international landmark for modern and contemporary art.
About twenty years later, the new expansion, known as the Switch House opened on June 17, 2016 to offer the public a variety of new experiences with a 60% increase in the museum’s exhibition space.
The new wing contains the collection of international contemporary art, most of which has been purchased in the past fifteen years, and new visitor facilities. The Switch House is a pyramid ten floors high, with floors of different heights depending on their function. In addition to three levels of exhibition galleries, the museum offers visitors educational areas, dining areas, event spaces and offices and culminates in a panoramic terrace with all-round views over the city of London.
Paying homage to the history of the place and power plant it all started with, the architects have covered the new wing with a brick grid. The “skin” lets natural light filter through during the day and artificial light at night, when what appears to be a solid, massive shape becomes a “light” veil covering the building’s concrete skeleton.
(Agnese Bifulco)
Design: Herzog & De Meuron
Location: London, UK
Images courtesy of Tate Modern: The new Tate Modern © Hayes Davidson and Herzog & de Meuron,
MulticolourTM 3D model by Peter Saville courtesy of Herzog & De Meuron
Images courtesy of Herzog & De Meuron: The new Tate Modern © Iwan Baan
http://www.tate.org.uk/
http://www.herzogdemeuron.com/
