Tate Modern: Building a Museum for the 21st Century

2016 | Travel

Tate Modern opened its doors in 2000, since when it has become the most popular modern and contemporary art attraction in the world, now welcoming more than 5 million visitors a year. Working with the shell of the former Bankside Power Station, internationally acclaimed architects Herzog & de Meuron created a gallery of singular power and beauty, whose spaces articulate a rare affinity with contemporary art. With the second major phase of the building now complete, Tate Modern presents a striking combination of the raw and the refined, of found industrial spaces and dazzling contemporary architecture. This is the definitive book of the building, and tells vividly the story of Tate Modern and the building of a twenty-first-century museum. With magnificent new photography and texts by a range of leading architectural writers, it describes the entire gallery, the ideas behind its conception and construction, the way in which it was designed and built, as well as the impact it has had on London, the UK and beyond.

Conversations between Tate Modern Director Chris Dercon and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, as well as Gunther Vogt, the landscape architect, Jasper Morrison, the interior designer and Ian Cartlidge, the graphic designer, present the philosophy and interchange of ideas that drove this extraordinary project. Supplemented by technical information on construction and materials, and a detailed chronology, this is the essential guide to one of the world's most iconic buildings.

Chris Dercon (Author)