LONDON - TATE MODERN GALERY - THE TURBINE HALL

One of the most recognizable landmarks of modern London - the former power station ( Bankside Power Station) originally designed in the mid 20th century by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, also responsible for design of Battersea Power Station




In the early 21th century the building has become really famous after its conversion to a modern gallery.The architects , Herzog & de Meuron kept the original external brick fasades and dominating tower, but re-organized the accesses to the building and most of all the interiours, taking the adventage of great empty spaces, and a perfect environment to create something grandeur,simplistic, and very unusual.




They also added an extention made of half transparent plexi panels at the top floor, to make better proportions an give it more contemporary character



The main hall is called until today the Turbine Hall.



Interesting external feature is the bridge also by Herzog & de Meuron, across the River Thames that is linking two banks and it also draws the attention to St Pauls Cathedral at the other end.



A lot of landscape architecture features ( together with the sculpture of a giant spider "Maman" by  Louise Bourgeois ) make the entire area tastefull and visitors friendly


















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PARIS - POMPIDOU CENTRE - CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU

This very controversial , high tech building made of steel structure became one of the most recognizable icon of the modern Paris .



The building was designed and built in 1969 -1974 by architectural team which consisted of Richard Rogers, Sue Rogers and Renzo Piano - the architectural Creme de la Creme.



Also the structural engineer involved in the construction Edmund Happold (Ove Arup & Partners then, and a founder of Buro Happold later )was one of the best ones, just to mention he was the engineer for the Sydney Opera house.



The architectural and structural dream teams main idea was to design a super high tech architecture by exposing and accentuating the commonly underestimated elements of the building for creating an aesthetic expression.They turned the entire thinking about the architecture upside down and contradicted all the rules that were obeyed by the traditionalists.






Proposed the shocking then, idea,to emphasize the other aspects, and elements of building like ventilation ducts, electrical ducts ,external walking decks, service decks, fire escape routes, steel structure elements, transparend full height glazing, air exhaust, inlets, outlets and many more components and brought them outside, and even make a sophisticated  piece of art of all of them.




Initially, each type of service had a particular colour but with time most of the elements were painted white.






The building is housing on of the biggest collection of the modern art and a french national library.





Next to the building there is a public square that features the Stravinsky Fountain - or Fontaine des automates that is famous for its moving and water spraying sculptures( black coloured painted by Jean Tinguely) (colour painted sculptures by Niky de Saint-Phalle) which represent the Igor Stravinsky's works.

LONDON - BATTERSEA POWER STATION

Very intriguing landmark of London , located on south bank of River Thames.


The building designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is an ex coal- fired power station incorporating two separate power stations in one bulk.



The power station is placed in Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest in England - it is also one of the biggest buildings made of brick in europe - unfortunately we were not able to visit the interior and can only rely on peoples opinion but they say it has a very extravagant art deco design.


That very picturesque building appeared  as a background in few art projects,used  by The  Beatles and Pink Floyd band.