MEDIUM

               

THE WHITECHAPEL PROJECT

                                                               ROBBERECHT EN DAEM ARCHITECTEN

                                                    WITHERFORD WATSON MANN ARCHITECTS

“Whitechapel Art Gallery has brought the great art of the world to the East end of London “

– Samuel and Henrietta Barnett founders of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1901

TEAM

Client. The Trustees of the Whitechapel Art gallery

Project Manager. Osprey Mott Macdonald, London

Design Team

Architect. Robbrecht & Daem Architecten, Gent, Belgium

Co-Architect. Witherford Watson Mann Architects, London

Structural Engineer. Price & Myers, London

Service Engineer. Max Fordham & Partners, Cambridge

Conservation Architect. Richard Griffiths Architects, London

Quantity Surveyor. Davis Langdon, London

Consultants

Building Control Consultant. Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Building Control, London

Access Consultant. David Bonnett Associates, London

Rights of light Consultant. Shatunowski, London

Planning Supervisor. Dearle & Henderson, London

LOCATION OF THE BUILDING

Whitechapel Art Gallery and Passmore Edwards Labrary are located respectively 80-82 and 77 Whitechapel High Street.

                                   

The Area. As one of the primary public spaces of the area, it is lined with institutions and public buildings, from the White Chapel Gallery and Passmore Edwards Library to the London Hospital and to the Queen Mary and Westfield College. The area has been a home to the poorest Londoners and to successive waves of immigrants. Passmore Edwards Library and Whitechapel Art Gallery were founded to contribute to the education and cultivation of the residents of the area. They have offered free cultural provision for generations of East End people. While the population of the area has changed composition entirely, the neighbourhoods of Tower Hamlets remain among the poorest in the UK. For this reason the East End of London remains a priority for generation for both London and National government.

The East End has become a pre-eminent location for artist and creative industries. Galleries and museums with an E postcode have spread throughout the area.

The Whitechapel Gallery, with its educational and community programme appears to be a point of contact between buoyant art activities located in the area and the educational and cultural institutions of the East End.

With the London’s economic and spatial growth now being directed to the East, after years of Westwards sprawl, the regeneration of the East End moves a step closer.

   

The East London Context. The Whitechapel High Street has been a public space, a market and the main road to the East. The Whitechapel Gallery and Passmore Library stand out in scale and proportion from the highly packed terrace housing and single storey shop fronts of the surrounding urban block. The two buildings are two of the many public and cultural buildings implanted throughout the east of London. They are also underlined as their additional significance as two facets of the wide-ranging programme of initiatives for social reform commenced by Samuel And Henrietta Barnett.

The placement of the library next to the gallery expresses the library’s role as a place of cultural dialogue and exchanges, much more than a space for just reading.

The gallery’s exhibitions include those with almost mythical statues in the art world, from the 1914’s Twentieth Century Art to 1965’s This is Tomorrow, and including the only British exposition of Picasso’s Guernica.

The unification of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Passmore Edwards Library is about much more, therefore, than the extension of the gallery into readily available spaces, or maintaining the library building in public use, worthwhile though both these objectives are.

The Whitechapel project is an opportunity to fulfil and update the founders’ ambition of dialogue within the actors of the area and easy-access to culture and learning.

 

The Buildings.

 

                            In appearance the two buildings seem to have little in common. The library is made of red bricks, terracotta in a baroque style, while the gallery is an art Noveau building is white and colder. To confirm their unique interaction, the gallery entrance could easily have been the perfect entrance of an underground station, even though, ironically, the entrance of Aldgate East was built through the library instead.

Despite the differences in appearance the buildings present interesting similarities. The gallery’s exhibition space is a colonnaded area with both side bays glazed over. Passing the foyer in the formal library, there is an ex-reading room, which contains the same four columns. This could suggest a connection between space and function of the buildings even in the past. Similarities in space do not include those in the atmosphere, which have always been different.

Alterations to the buildings since construction. Some alterations have affected the original buildings since their construction both externally and internally. The main ones concern:

The Gallery

External alterations:

• Facade unfinished
• Insertion of windows into the blank panel planned for the mosaic
• Acid streaking across the terracotta

Internal alterations:

• Air-conditioning introduced to the upper and lower galleries
• Replacement of the old staircases with new stairs in white terrazza

The Library

External alterations:

• 1930: construction of Aldgate East station
• Removal of the left upper part of the dormer and of the terracotta cartouche at the roof level
• Dormer gable truncated
• Replacement of the central tower and the attic roof

Internal alterations:

• Introduction of open access lending in the ground floor library
• Insertion of mezzanines
• Addition of a public stair to the front basement

External alterations of the buildings

The Conservation Statement. The Architects Richard Griffiths and Alan Baxter prepared the Conservation statement in October 2002, which contains information on the history of the library overuse and fabric of the building. Other several consultations with the English Heritage and London Borough of Tower Hamlets took place in March 2004 and April 2005.

Content and Context of the design brief

Purposes, Community benefits. The general aim of the project is to meet the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s main needs by expanding their exhibition and education spaces. Every proposal made by the architects aims to be as compatible as possible with the fabric of the building. Through the transformation of spaces, the objective is to benefit the community, in the sense that spaces will serve educational requests. From the implementation of public events to the development of community schools and family programmes. The new spaces, like the expanded archive, for instance, provide concrete potentials for researchers in the field of arts education, cultural studies and museum studies. Moreover, the Whitechapel educational programme is addressed to the spread of life-long learning to any kind of audience through discussions, workshops and events. Last but not least, in order to increase the spread of culture and arts, the access to the gallery’s exhibitions is guaranteed for free.

Spaces Requirements and Process, Flow Chart.

Spaces requirements

Main alterations to the building fabric.

• A foyer space in front of the galleries links the two buildings at ground floor level and shows visitors the extent of the buildings
• The existing front stair will be removed to create a new foyer and a new opening is proposed to the flank wall of the library’s main stair
• A link is proposed at the rear of the ground floor with a corner of the lower gallery enclosed, and a doorway through the dividing wall
• At the first floor level new link galleries are proposed at both front and rear which permit movement between the main galleries
• These galleries will be linked permitting visitors to move with ease between exhibitions in a linked limit
• A new lift located on the party wall between library and gallery will make all levels of the buildings accessible
• The former museum space is well suited in terms of day lighting. New roof lights are proposed for the ground floor rear library space to improve its day lighting suitable for gallery use

Sketches by the architects identifying the location of the existing stairs, a new circulation core allowing rooms to be used separately, and new openings and secondary stairs used to make a circuit.

Gallery and Library facades to Whitechapel High Street.

The facedes of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Passmore Edwards Library :

The two facades have compositional contrast : the solidity of the gallery facade contrasts with the trasparency of the library like the gallery’s emphatic  entrance framed by towers compares with the lighter harmonies of the library.

Nevertheless this differences, Whitechapel gallery and the library are united by both materials and scale since the storey heights of the buildings is generous and the frontage  of two buildings have a similar span: 12 metre wide. Also in both facede is made  use of terracotta for window surrounds.

The aim of proposal is to take care of the characteristics of both buildings while establishing a stornger presence of the Whitechaple on the street

The Stabilization and repair of the facade primarily relates with the library facade where WWM replaced the  bricks and terracotta blocks as well the in-situ mortar. The windows has been redecorated , the lead roof and tower has been repaired.

•Reinforcing the unity : in collaboration with artists

Replacement

A new glazed dormer window has been added on the base of the tarracotta cartouche on the right hand bay of the facade is intended to be delicate. The Gallery and library new entrace doors have been changed in coloured glass

Aims of proposed alteration:

-Need for more foyer space

-Achive a degree of unity between the two buolidings

-Greater presence on the street during the day

-Empasise the interior as well of the exterior of the building

-Trasform the night-time visibility of the two buildings

New paving strip in front of gallery and library has been designe in collaboration with artist to mark the presence of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in the ground

The primary circulation:

•Ground floor:

Existing and new galleries are linked at the front of the ground floor via the foyer

A single foyer at ground floor level :

-allows diagonal views through to the stair

– links the circulation zones of the two buildings

by removing the existing staircase located in the former external court o the gallery

•First floor:

New link galleries form a circuit between the existing and the new galleries.

-They are more intimate in scale

– They serve as second register of exihibition space.

-They are percieved as room for the side light and orientation to these spaces

•Upper floors:

A new stair to the rear of the library front serves the upper floor, linking the education spaces to the archive and the foyer

•The main entrance:

-Remained with its arched doorway

-A glazed door  is added at the street front to increase in visitor number expected

-The reception desk is located in this space

The secondary circulation

•Ground floor:

Existing and new galleries are connected at the back via small link space int the northeast corner With a ramp between the galleries to reduce:

-the small level difference

-the light level difference

•The secondary library entrance:

– It can be used a service entrance for deliveires to the buildings while the main entrance is open and viceversa.

– It also serve as an escape route from the upper floors of the library

Services Strategy

General services strategy

Building Thermal Performances

Aims:

•Improve thermal performance of the building adopting a respectful approach to preserving the historic fabric

•Meet the required standard of the Building Regulation Approved Document Part L2 (Conservation  of Fuel and Power in  Building Other than Dwellings)

•Good insulation levels of the new fabric to limit heat loss and limiting solar hear gain

•Careful detailing to ensure good sealing and prevent cold air infiltrating

Ventilation

• Mechanical ventilation: will be kept to a minimum and will be used only where absolutely necessary

•  Natural ventilation: opening windows and roof lights will be manually operated and should incorporate security facilities.

Aims:

•to avoid mechanical ventilation

•to increas environmental quality

•reduce energy use.

Daylight/Solar Control

•Reasonable amount of glazing windows to reduce the need for artificial lighting in the required areas:

-Café

-Education spaces

-Workshop Studios

-Offices

-Circulacion spaces

Proposal commisioned

New ground floor Commision gallery

-The existing rear ground space will be used for a chianging display

-Was i ntended to be specific on topics as architecture, hiistory of Whitechapel area

-Extention of the space into the existing court tho change itto a simple rectangular plan form

-Roof lights in the corner bays of the ceiling bring in daylight and reinforce the Greek Cross plan

-Its role is to be a gallery for installations

-New opening in the northeast corner will provide a link to the existing grounf floor gallery

New first floor Collections gallery

-The new first floor gallery will be returned to exhibition use for international collections

-The existing rooflight and day-light was restored

– A series of new link galleries connect throught the first floor gallery

Education and Community spaces

-doubled the space for education use

-Permitting entrace of classes of 30 students

-Subdivisible in two with a sliding partition

-A second smaller studio is sproposed with facilities (toilets,storage,officee.)

-Access to these spaces is indipendent : permitting the use in the eveining outside of gaòòery opening hours.

The Archive Exihibition and reading room

-the archive is housed in a way that is integral to the experience of the visitor.

-is marked as highly significant in the “conservetion statement

– Will undergo some changes due to the lift and stairs

PLANS of the Buildings Levels:

ELEVATION of  Whitechapel Hight Street:

SECTIONS of the Whitechapel Art Gallery:

WWM MODELS: