The Switch House is a modern art gallery located besides the River Thames in the London borough of Southwark. It is part of the Tate Modern and it forms parts of The Tate Group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives in Cornwall.
The extension is built upon the original, cylindrical, underground foundations of The Tanks that were used to house the oil that fuelled the Bankside Power Station. The sharp-edged, twisting, almost pyramidal shape, is created with a perforated lattice cladding of 336,000 bricks, which match the original structure of the power station.
The Switch House extension adds another 60% more space to be used for live art, installations and film. It is considered to be Britain’s most important new cultural building for more than twenty years.
Window openings in the façade progress from thin and vertical to long and horizontal as their height increases, allowing light to filter in during the day and to glow outwards through the lattice during the evening. The interior is formed almost entirely using raw concrete folded into dramatic angles with sweeping staircases that provide an impression of spaciousness without appearing cavernous.
A public terrace on The Tenth Floor offers 360º panoramic views of The River Thames, St Paul’s Cathedral and the ever-developing London skyline. A new upper bridge spanning the Turbine Hall joins the existing galleries in the older Boiler House with the newer galleries in the Switch House.
The original Tate Modern gallery was one of the earliest major commissions for Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron's studio, which has since completed many museums and galleries around the world, including the Perez Museum in Miami, the Parrish Museum in New York State and the restoration of a 19th-century room at the Park Avenue Armory building in New York City.
Sustainability is at the heart of the contemporary design, with a high thermal mass natural ventilation solar panels and newly created green spaces. It is a building designed for the twenty first century and for the future of London.
The Switch House at The Tate Modern was designed by Swiss Architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and was opened to the public on 17th June 2016. The new building is an extension to the original Bankside Power Station that was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in the 1950’s.
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