Chipperfield in London

The English architect David Chipperfield, known for his international work, surprises again with a new intervention museum, this time in the city that saw him born.

 

More than a new building, it is a surgical intervention for a special patient. We are talking about the enlargement of the Royal Academy (RA) in London, an institution that embodies the "establishment" of British art.

The RA surprisingly did not have a suitable place to give lectures and for it rented expensive places in central London. For this reason they acquired the space adjacent to its headquarters and entrusted to Chipperfield its adequacy. This annex − located at the number six of Burlington Gardens − is a history building. It was headquarters of the University of London and Anthropological museum before the architect restored it to connect it with the headquarters in the street Picadilly of the RA.

In addition to the challenge of restoring the building, and incorporate it into another property of patrimonial value, Chipperfield faced a major: to respond to the "strong opinions" of 80 academics, workers and tenants of the studios of artists that exist between one and the other Building and that are now in view of the public. "Decisions were taken in a similar environment to Yugoslavia just before the war," he said. However, despite adversity, the architect and his team emerged victorious, and therefore proudly showed the bridge that links the old building with the new and aspires to be the icon of the future of the museum.

It is worth mentioning that it is not the first work of Chipperfield that surprises by its spatial quality: the remodeling of the Neues Museum of Berlin (1997-2009), famous for being a home to Nefertiti, and the Museum Jumex (2013) In our city are sample of it. In particular, his restoration-based work is a chair of architecture, since he works with respect to the preexistences, and incorporates them with harmony to a contemporary discourse.

Among the relevant data, this project that started in 2008, increased by 70% the space available for the RA exhibitions and for the permanent collection and had a cost of 64 million euros.  It will be inaugurated on Saturday May 19, when the 250 anniversary of the founding of the renowned academy is commemorated.