44 PROJECT REPORT: CULTURAL, CIVIC & FAITH BUILDINGS
© Stéphane Aboudaram | WE ARE CONTENT(S)
“The idea was that you would step off solid ground across a bridge into a building that floats among the trees, leaping off the side of the hill”
“We looked at elevating the gallery above the road, but finally gravitated towards a design in which users would come along the track, and then step off solid ground across a bridge into a building that floats among the trees, leaping off the side of the hill,” he explains.
The design intention then necessitated a structural solution that would connect the gallery in as minimal a way as possible to the ground, avoiding a series of extended columns connecting it to the ground. “There was a step by step analysis through a series of concept sketches, which was then presented to McKillen, who immediately bought into it,” says Spence. He says that McKillen would not entertain even a single column – “‘why compromise the design’ was the client’s clear steer.” He adds: “By supporting the purity of the design, this allowed us to keep the magic of the site.”
Collaboration & unity © Stéphane Aboudaram | WE ARE CONTENT(S)
Through the high level of collaboration and unity with the client – the architects had his “full support from day one,” enthuses
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Spence – the team were given “total freedom” to design whatever they deemed best for the site and the building’s function. Other than small requests, such as the stipulation that the gallery be able to cater for changing, temporary exhibitions, and offer a certain size necessary to host them, the architect tells me that what the client sought most dearly – in order to match the multiple architectural works on the estate – was a building that was “a beautiful object in its own right.”
According to Spence, the biggest discussions with the client during this process were to do with the size and colour. Remembering an early conversation between himself, the client and Richard Rogers, he says: “We sat in Richard’s house one day, which is made up of two houses knocked together, and we measured the space – 12 metres.” “McKillen decided on the size he wanted in a very simple way; for it to be twice the size of that room. That is how we came up with the 24 metres; we thought the 5 metre width and 4 metre height were appropriate for the overall proportions.”
ADF JULY 2021
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