Hayward Gallery

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The Hayward Gallery

The Hayward Gallery is an exhibition building in London - mostly for modern and contemporary art.

Hayward Gallery and Southbank Center

The Hayward Gallery is part of the Southbank Center - an area in central London with major cultural venues on the South Bank of the Thames : Royal Festival Hall , Queen Elizabeth Hall , Purcell Room , Royal National Theater and the British Film Institute . As part of the name change from the “South Bank Center” to the “Southbank Center” in early 2007, the Hayward Gallery was finally renamed - until the beginning of 2011 it was called “The Hayward”. The building was named after Sir Isaac Hayward , a former London County Council leader who preceded the Great London Council . Joanna Drew was the founding director. Ralph Rugoff is currently a director (since mid-2006).

Exhibitions

The Hayward Gallery, London

The Hayward Gallery hosts three to four major exhibitions a year, most of which are devoted to modern or contemporary art , and has no permanent exhibition. From 1968 to 1986 the gallery was operated by the Arts Council of Great Britain until management was transferred to the Southbank Center. Unlike other exhibition venues in the UK that receive government funding, the Hayward Gallery charges an entrance fee as it only presents temporary exhibitions and temporary exhibitions in the UK usually require entry - including museums where the permanent exhibition is free.

In the past, the Hayward Gallery has presented exhibitions from a wide variety of art eras - including works by Leonardo da Vinci , Edvard Munch and French Impressionists . Recently, however, the exhibitions have concentrated more on contemporary art, which has also been related to the space and the massive concrete structure of the building - such as the works of Dan Flavin or Antony Gormley . In addition, two overview exhibitions with exhibits from the Arts Council Collection took place here: British Art 1940–1980 and How to Improve the World: 60 Years of British Art .

Exhibitions (selection)

architecture

Stairway on Queens Walk between the ground floor, the transition bridge and the roof terrace of Queen Elizabeth Hall
Architects

The building was designed by Higgs and Hill and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on July 9, 1968 . A lot of exposed concrete was used in the construction , which is typical of the Brutalist architectural style . The original concept was designed by team leader Norman Engleback - together with the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room as an extension of the Southbank Center. In addition, the architects Ron Herron and Warren Chalk from Bauamt (Department of Architecture and Civic Design) of the Greater London Council were involved - both became members of the Archigram group of architects, which was later founded . Warren Chalk created the site plan and bridges on the 1st floor while Ron Herron worked on the acoustics for Queen Elizabeth Hall. First Alan Waterhouse and then Dennis Crompton worked on the design for the Hayward Gallery.

Order and implementation

The architects were asked to create five exhibition areas: two areas were to be created within the building on two floors, and three outside areas in the form of huge concrete tubs were to be created for the presentation of sculptures . At the same time, the Hayward Gallery was to house the Arts Council Collection. The upper exhibition areas receive natural light through glass pyramids on the flat roof of the building. A kinetic light sculpture is permanently located in the exhibition building. This reacts to the wind strength on the roof of the shaft for the visitor elevator and comes from an exhibition from 1971.

The outdoor areas for the presentation of sculptures against the backdrop of the London skyline later proved to be impractical, so that these areas were hardly used and were usually not accessible to the public - except for the "Blind Light" exhibition with works by Antony Gormley in the 2007. The roof terrace on the south side and the transition bridge to the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall are usually not open to the public, but were opened in 2011 for the “Summer of Fun Festival”.

Integration into the environment

Despite its apparently uncompromising shape, the building responds to its surroundings. This is shown by an architectural trick of the building: The different lines of the outer walls on the ground floor and at the level of the transition bridges bring the different axes of the Hayward Gallery and the Royal Festival Hall under one roof. Another example is the transition bridge over Belvedere Road with access from Waterloo Bridge , which becomes wider and wider towards the west: on the one hand, it follows the course of Belvedere Road and, on the other hand, it adapts to the stairs of the outdoor terraces of the Hayward Gallery and follows the outer walls of the exhibition building. Last but not least, the floor plan of the sculpture courtyard in the southwest corner reflects the change in the building's angles between Waterloo Bridge and Festival Square.

Service facilities

The two floors in the exhibition building are connected by two concrete stairwells. These stairwells and the toilets on the mezzanine are housed in a concrete cuboid - between the eastern and western parts of the exhibition areas. One of these stairwells goes up to street level where there is an emergency exit to Belvedere Road . The other staircase leads to an almost hidden entrance foyer, which is located on the north side of the building. This access is located below the actual main foyer and the transitional bridge of the north facade as well as above the parking garage and near the protruding Purcell Room Auditorium. The visitor and freight elevator as well as the building services are located in three concrete shafts in the middle of the building. In the south-west corner of the building there is a control room on street level . The parking garage takes up most of the basement. A technical room is located in the eastern end of the basement - above the parking garage - with a large concrete exhaust shaft at Waterloo Bridge.

Conversions

Originally the building only had a very small foyer with cast aluminum doors - similar to the doors of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. In 2003 this foyer was rebuilt. A larger foyer with a glass front was created, which was designed by the Haworth Tompkins architectural office . At the same time, an oval, glass pavilion (design: Dan Graham ) was built above a new café at the eastern end, where offices were once located. Before that, a shop was set up in the north-west corner of the lower exhibition area.

The transition bridge connecting the Hayward Gallery to the Hungerford Bridge was demolished in the spring of 1999. This has restricted access to Festival Square and the end of the former bridge appears strangely clipped. This impression is made worse by the positioning of the parking garage and loading ramp for deliveries - a legacy of the original design, which provided vertical separation of pedestrians and traffic.

Monument protection

In 2011 the Hayward Gallery was placed on the World Monuments Fund list, despite the fact that this building is not a listed building in the UK .

future

The Southbank Center and Arts Council are discussing the future of the Hayward Building along with the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, which are located between the Hayward Gallery and the River Thames.

A design by Richard Rogers was selected from an architectural competition in the early 1990s . This envisaged spanning all three buildings with a wave-shaped glass roof. This would also have connected the Royal Festival Hall to Waterloo Bridge. However, this draft was not pursued due to the high costs, otherwise one would have had to rely on the National Lottery taking over a large part of the financing. At the same time, there was resistance from the Twentieth Century Society , who complained that the arrangement and interaction of the buildings would suffer due to the glass roof.

further reading

  • ARUP JOURNAL: South Bank Arts Center; Architects: H. Bennett, Greater London Council chief architect, July 1967, pp. 20–31
  • ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW: South Bank Arts Center, London borough of Lambeth; Architects: H. Bennett, architect to the Greater London Council Vol. 144, No. 857, July 1968, pp. 14-30
  • INTERIOR DESIGN: Hayward Art Gallery, South Bank Art Center, London; Architect: H. Bennett, architect to the Greater London Council, September 1968, pp. 49-54
  • OFFICIAL ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING: South Bank Cultural Center, London borough of Lambeth; Architect: H. Bennett, chief architect of the Greater London Council, August 1969, pp. 918-923
  • THE ARCHITECTS 'JOURNAL: No. 3441, Vol. 133. March 30, 1961, pp. 469-478

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Facts About London ( Memento of December 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on 02/01/2008
  2. ^ Crown Works ( June 19, 2010 memento on the Internet Archive ) Vauxhall Civic Society
  3. ↑ Preston bus station joins stone drawings Peru Greek cemetery prestigious World Monuments list (From The Daily Mail) . dailymail.co.uk. October 6, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2011.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '22.2 "  N , 0 ° 6' 55.7"  W.