London’s brutalist building has become very popular over the past ten years, becoming one of the city’s most beloved landmarks. After undergoing repairs and renovations for two years, the Hayward Gallery is finally ready to reopen this month, with Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room soon to follow.
On working on this project, architects Feilden Clegg Bradley decided to replace all building services, improve environmental performance, repave the sculpture terraces, and replace the stone floors. The refurbishment of the pyramid roof lights was at the heart of the restoration, and now they are completely redesigned and together with a raised gallery ceiling, open up a view of the sky. Artist David Batchelor was also asked to create ‘Sixty Minute Spectre’, which is a light installation on the roof that cycles through the visible chromatic spectrum every hour. At night time it brings a splash of colour to the Southbank.
Hayward Gallery reopens on the same date as its 50th anniversary, which is today. To celebrate it, the gallery will include the first major UK retrospective of the German artist/photographer Andreas Gursky. Its work is featured at a monumental size and it will work well with the high white walls of the building. His subjects range from a seemingly endless apartment block in Paris to an enormous water tank, part of Japan’s Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment.
Additionally there will be 60 unseen images from the secretive state of North Korea that will be on display until the 22nd of April.
