Main floor and newly inserted staircase under dome
A particular version of the renewal of a venerable old building can be seen in the recently opened transformation of the Tate Britain's entrance and lower floors by Caruso St John. While the original building dates from 1897, its central portico entrance, dome and successive grand Classical spaces have received little architectural attention in recent years. Instead there have been additions, most notably Stirling's Clore Galleries (1986) recently dismissed by a critic as 'Po-Mo', but surely due for a revival of interest.
 Under the dome: Part of colonnade on upper floor |  Upper floor to side staircase |
One aspect of this new project is that it is, intentionally, difficult to get to see what parts represent new work and what pre-dated it. The architects' techniques include subtraction- so the domed space at the focus of the main axis is opened up, and an apparently pre-existing space on the first floor becomes a colonnaded area housing the Tate members' facilities. A series of well proportioned spaces, defined by a limited palette of greys, is either created or opened up in the basement. Beautifully detailed vaults, furnished with light fittings reminiscent of Adolf Loos, remind me of some Viennese work, including cafe design, at the turn of the previous century. And there's the very new staircase- making a completely new and clearer link between the two main floors. To put it mildly, its rhetorical swagger appears to be a different kind of architecture than the modest interventions elsewhere in the building. Maybe it needs time to bed in, but its material, if not its decorative motif, seems at odds with the rest of the design.
Caruso St John have moved up in some kind of pecking order in gallery design- starting with a provincial gallery (Walsall) which rightly made their reputation over ten years ago- and moving through Nottingham Contemporary and the Museum of Chldhood to this project, in a building with the highest profile of public institutions in the heart of the arts establishment. They have done so with confidence, and a high degree of success.
Caruso St John have moved up in some kind of pecking order in gallery design- starting with a provincial gallery (Walsall) which rightly made their reputation over ten years ago- and moving through Nottingham Contemporary and the Museum of Chldhood to this project, in a building with the highest profile of public institutions in the heart of the arts establishment. They have done so with confidence, and a high degree of success.
Vault and lighting in main new cafe space