LONDON’S NEW TATE MODERN: THE SWITCH HOUSE
Since 2000, Tate Modern has attracted over 70 million visitors. The Switch House, its new extension, is meant to reshape London’s cultural life.
In 1961, London’s Bankside Power Station was completed following English architect Giles Gilbert Scott’s design. In the early 1980s, the Power Station was decommissioned and today it hosts the renowned Tate Modern. Since it opened in 2000, Tate Modern has attracted over 70 million visitors and has become one of the world’s most visited museums of modern and contemporary art, showcasing some of the best work from all over the globe.
With communities at heart, Tate Modern’s plans are to keep on growing, both spatially and culturally: the Switch House, the new extension, is a major step in this direction and it’s positively overwhelming.
In June 2016, The Switch House, Tate Modern’s new extension in London, opened its doors to the public. Unarguably, this extension has been a much awaited historical moment for Tate, for London and for global cultural exchange. The idea of extending Tate Modern’s gallery not only was part of the original vision for this site, which has always seen itself expanding at the rear of the current building, but was also a necessity. Tate Modern currently counts over 5 million annual visitors, which is over double the amount that it was originally planned for. It has also become one of the major international art galleries, renowned worldwide for its architecture, its exhibitions, and its social and cultural worth. The vision behind this extension seeks to retain these and further increase the amount of spaces, enabling visitors to move through the galleries more fluidly, while increasing the number of exhibitions and workshops that it hosts. In addition to the above, there are also a range of new facilities and learning spaces aimed at developing and cultivating public knowledge, the understanding of art, and the sharing of culture — all values that Tate has strived to communicate and achieve through its history and galleries.
The project for the new extension has been carried out by Herzog & De Meuron and has been something of a homecoming for them. Herzog & De Meuron refurbished the Bankside Power Station and turned it into today’s marvellous Tate Modern back in 2000, and then went on to win the international competition [for the Switch House] launched by the Tate in 2005. Their aim for the Switch House has been to create a relationship between old and new, for “the new and old to work together but for the new to be distinct but not anomalous”. The theme of reinterpretation is a constant throughout the whole project and is ever-present: a dialogue between past and present permeates constantly through the building, its spaces, their materiality and geometries, and its purpose. Together with its social and cultural sustainability, this project is also an excellent model of environmental sustainability thanks to its high thermal mass, natural ventilation use, roof solar panels and added landscaping.
The extension has been designed to use 54% less energy and generate 44% less carbon than the current regulations demand — highlighting Tate’s environmental concern and considerate response.
The brick-clad extension rises for ten storeys, at the rear corner of the building, adding 20,700 square meters of new spaces. From very far away, it seems to appear as a standing electrical storm in London’s skyline: dynamically permanent. The glass window path that cracks up and around the entire new structure enables this particular lighting effect. A bit closer, yet still from a distance, the extension can appear as a building of its own: more vertical than horizontal, less symmetrical, and clustered up in the back corner. Yet, thanks to its materiality, characterised by brick and glass, a contemporary reinterpretation of the current gallery’s envelope seems to have occurred. The dialogue continues. Once there, just by it and below it, it is humbly grand and one fully acknowledges it is not an independent entity, but rather a limb of the existing gallery. This breathing limb delicately originates in the oil tanks of the former power station and rises above them, interconnecting itself via the switch station to rise further up and into the sky. The interconnectivity of spaces is further achieved by a new bridge that lies across level 4, through the Turbine Hall, linking the existing Boiler House galleries to the new Switch House galleries.
Inside, the spatial layout and distribution of functions contribute to further enhance the relationship between the old and new sites, as well as the project’s aim to have more high quality social spaces for its visitors, to boost public knowledge through the sharing of art, and to utilise art “to learn about each other and the world around us”. As a matter of fact, the lower levels have been designed to accommodate indoor and outdoor public spaces, shops and cafes; the levels above these have been set to host Tate’s mind-blowing collection and some of the major temporary exhibitions; further up, half way through the Switch House, levels 5 and 6 are have been dedicated to public learning, participation and engagement; whilst the remaining highest floors, as well as levels 5 and 6 of the Boiler House, have been devoted to social spaces and include restaurants and an incredible viewing terrace, among others. The core spaces dedicated to art are located in the middle of the building, the heart and the core of it, and can be understood as the mediator and link between the public, on the lower floors, and the social, on the upper floors: another metaphoric and literal evocation of knowledge sharing and cultural exchange.
This project goes far beyond the shaping of a space: it is about the shaping of global culture. When it comes to designing a museum or an extension to it, the need for place-making is a must and, due to the versatility of its functions, it is harder to achieve. Although the main characters are art, in all its shapes and mediums, and people, from any background, these need a suitable space that enable them not only to come together, but also to interact timelessly with each other, allowing for the longed cultural exchange.
As the Tate’s Director, Sir Andrew Nicholas Serota has stated “The new Tate Modern is an instrument that will allow us to present a changing perspective on the world, offer a rich variety of experiences to visitors and give opportunities to artists to explore new ways of making and showing their work,” and “Tate should be making differences to people’s lives by offering the experience of art to all.”
The Switch House is a project that will further enable global cultural exchange, for all and from all.
