PROJECT REPORT: CULTURAL BUILDINGS
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that Bilbao’s Guggenheim did for that city. The Guggenheim’s architect Frank Gehry chose Dundee for what is still his only permanent UK building, a much more modest Maggie’s Centre for cancer patients at Ninewells Hospital to the west of the city – the V&A is a different kettle of fish. Its client Dundee Design Ltd (DDL) comprises the City of Dundee, the Scottish Government, Abertay and Dundee Universities, and the V&A itself. In staging its 2010 design competition for the building DDL wanted something that would form the centrepiece of a £1bn masterplan to improve the city’s neglected riverfront. It also had to be a part of the city, and recon- nect it with the river. With this in mind, perhaps the biggest success of Kuma’s building is how, despite its dramatic geome- try, its design harnesses a combination of unashamed modernity and an organic, earthy feel to manage this feat. From the new urban plaza next to the permanently-moored ‘Discovery’ (the ship that took Scott to Antarctica) the building’s two tapering volumes slightly resemble two boats sitting side by side, one with its prow jutting out across the river. However viewed from the triangular main entrance the two
The building’s two tapering volumes slightly resemble two boats sitting side by side, one with its prow jutting out across the river
forms are revealed to be connected at first- floor level, forming one new floor. The pedestrian walkway continues invitingly through the somewhat sea arch-like gap between the two, towards the Tay estuary, one leg of the ‘arch’ disappearing mysteri- ously into the water. Also, the undulating nature of the facade, clad in seemingly randomly shaped precast planks, becomes more noticeable as you get closer. This is a big departure from what was here before, as project architect Maurizio Mucciola tells ADF. “Until six or so years ago the whole waterfront area was an indus- trial port, but most of the docks had fallen into disuse.” He says that when the practice first visited the site in 2010 there was a leisure centre sitting where the museum is, “which was not the best building to be in such a nice position.” There was also a hotel
FACING PAGE
Scottish cliffs inspired the museum’s cladding of individually shaped and angled cast stone planks
ABOVE LEFT The museum’s black pigmented concrete volumes before and after cladding
ABOVE RIGHT
The concrete wall section with the most extreme dimensions – no. 18 – curves through a total of 123° Images © Ross Fraser McLean
ADF OCTOBER 2017
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