now so much is going on in London over 2012 as you may all be aware but there are some things that have not taken centre stage as much as others. One thing that has interested me for as long as I have known about it is the Tate Modern Extension project. This project has not really been covered by the media that much as I guess it has been overshadowed by the construction of the Olympic park, The Shard and the other “biggies” that are being build the north of the river. Today I decided to do a bit of information hunting on it to see exactly what is going on. All of you must have heard about the Tate Modern. The modern is an art gallery that is hosted in an old power factory that is to be honest as ugly as Hell. It is a huge space and holds so many great pieces of art and exhibitions. Even though the building is rather ugly, people grow to love it and I have to admit that I am one of these people! It just suits the area and when you see it you do not automatically think “oh there is that ugly factory” you think “oh look its the Tate Modern” and I guess that was the intention when it was renovated to become the gallery it is today almost eleven years ago! Now anyway enough of the Tate modern, its all about the extension! You would assume being a modern art gallery, the Tate would have a modern glass building to contrast with the rather dark brown power station but no, this is not the case. In true Tate Modern style they decided to create something rather different and striking. The final plans are a building to me that resembles an urban pyramid. The building is clad in brick which again is rather surprising because barely any builds of this scale use brick and what I think is great is that the brick matches the brick to the original building. There are gaps between the cladding on the building which reveal more larger windows which you can only truly see from the outside of the building at night when it is lit up. Personally I Iove it because there will be no other building like this because if it was built anywhere else other than next to this factory it would look plain hideous. It has a relationship with the original building in a way that not many extensions do (they usually just look exactly the same or completely different) The one thing that excites me the most about this building however is not the exterior, not the new interior but what lies beneath it. The three oil drums that are situated below this extension and to the side of the main building are going to be used as special exhibition spaces. W all love going to the Tate for the turbine hall for the special pieces or art that it hosts and now we will also have this to marvel at too. Could anyone even imagine when the Tate first opened that we would be going to see exhibitions in the oil drums under ground! its just classic and such a great idea to make art stand out. One thing that intrigues me about the planning of the build is that it says (in news articles only) that the building shall be complete ready for the Olympic games however after seeing live pictures of the site one has to remain very pessimistic about this. I know that people said it about the Shard and in a month it grew to exceptional heights but this building still remains underground! I really hope that it will spring up like a ward on a dirty kids hand but I have a feeling that it has been delayed and no website that I have looked at can tell me any information about this.
Anyway have a look at the pictures and tell me what you think! more information on this can be found at the Tate’s website
happy building, Thatmfeeling
