Design statement by David Chipperfield Architects:
As a practice, we are interested in developing building ideas that are unique to the particular conditions of the project, both physical and organisational.
The starting point for our design for The Hepworth Wakefield was Wakefield’s existing art gallery – a converted Victorian townhouse that became a ‘temporary’ home for the city’s art collection in 1934. In the existing art gallery, a series of small domestic rooms provided the exhibition space. While these conditions limit the options for showing works of art, they nevertheless provide a natural, intimate context that suits the small-scale nature of much of the existing collection.
The idea of a new home for the collection led us to explore the concept of clearly defined rooms for the art, and for the composition of these rooms to determine the external form of the building. While maintaining a consistent character, these rooms would differ in proportion and in the location of their openings; roof lights would provide natural light and side windows would provide views and orientation to the outside.
Conservation requirements can lead to a ‘black-box’ solution to designing gallery spaces. Although ideal in terms of preserving the artworks, this often results in a less enjoyable visitor experience. With The Hepworth Wakefield, we looked at ways of introducing daylight into the gallery spaces without compromising conservation conditions.
Through careful consideration of the location and size of openings, it has been possible to include windows in the gallery spaces. These windows will orient visitors and provide views of the River Calder and the nearby medieval Chantry Chapel – one of only four surviving chapels of its kind in the UK. In addition, ‘slot lights’ in the gallery roof will allow controlled daylight into the gallery spaces at high level, animating the spaces without distracting visitors from the artworks on display below.
The relationship between the spatial internal experience of a building, the building form, and the context surrounding the building is fundamental to our work. We believe that architectural decisions cannot be made in isolation, and we rely on a reading of context to inform our design proposals.
The headland setting on Wakefield’s waterfront - highly prominent with no front or back – was of particular interest. The surrounding industrial buildings, their scale and form and position on the river’s edge, offered a solution for the gallery’s massing and location. Organising the building in a series of smaller blocks of varying heights and roof pitches will complement the scale of the existing buildings and enable the gallery to present a number of frontages to the river and the adjacent buildings.
The gallery’s location on the river’s edge will also allow it to apply new forms of
renewable energy by sourcing the majority of its heating and cooling from the flow of the River Calder.
The gallery façade will be constructed of pigmented, in-situ concrete. The intention is to create a smooth, continuous finish that allows the natural material qualities to give character to the overall appearance. Concrete is an inherently strong, robust material, which has associations with solidity and permanence. Casting the concrete on site means that it is possible to create walls and roofs that emphasise the sculptural quality of the building. Adding pigment creates an unfamiliar appearance, which seeks to make the façade equally interesting whether it is viewed from close up or from a distance.
It is David Chipperfield Architects’ belief that architecture should be both familiar and unfamiliar - we must develop new architecture which also carries formal ideas that respond to memory and experience.
