Turner Contemporary in Margate on the north coast of Kent, UK, has been chosen as one of 21 landmarks that define Britain in the 21st century. Among the celebrated structures are Sir Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, St Paul’s Cathedral in London and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

The building was designed by David Chipperfield and it was completed on 2011. The Independent Traveller, along with BA's High Life magazine, has asked people to nominate structures that best represent the country today. The public votes were then presented for consideration to a panel of judges, who made their final decision at London’s Hotel Café Royal.

Iwona Blazwick, director of Whitechapel Gallery and member of the jury, said "the architect, David Chipperfield, has built something which pays tribute to Turner himself and puts something on the horizon. It's a great journey to go inside it. It's transformed Margate."

Description of the project by David Chipperfield.

Turner Contemporary is a new gallery in Margate on the north coast of Kent. Its name was inspired by the town’s association with the English painter JMW Turner, who exclaimed, ‘… the skies over Thanet [the north-eastern tip of Kent] are the loveliest in all Europe’. The gallery is located on a prominent seafront, previously a car park, where a guesthouse frequented by Turner once stood.

The new two-storey building is designed to maximise both the dramatic setting between sea and land and the extraordinary light conditions unique to this area that inspired Turner well over a century ago. It is composed of six identical crystalline volumes with monopitched roofs providing north light to the gallery spaces and revealing daily and seasonal light changes. Turner Contemporary offers spectacular views to the sea, connecting visitors to the broader landscape whilst encouraging a sense of participation in the community. The gallery is visible from the railway station across the sandy beach and forms a focal point on the horizon. As the seafront is occasionally flooded, the building has been raised on a plinth and its immediate surroundings provided with a hard landscape.

The public gallery, which has no permanent collection, presents both historic and contemporary works as well as a programme of educational and cultural events with a broad community appeal. The ground-floor spaces include a reception area, a flexible event space and a cafeteria – all of which can operate independently from the climate-controlled exhibition spaces occupying the upper floor. Direct daylight enters the building from the clerestory windows on the north side and diffused sunlight from the skylights above each of the six volumes.

The building is constructed with a concrete frame and acid-etched glass skin. The envelope has to withstand the corrosive nature of the sea, high humidity levels, strong winds and the occasional wave overtopping the building. The façades are primarily of glass with reinforced windows. Internally, the material palette is reduced to hard-wearing screed floors and dry lining to facilitate the hanging of changing exhibitions.

CREDITS. TECHNICAL SHEET.-

Architect.- David Chipperfield Architects London.
Director.- Franz Borho.
Project architects.- Holger Mattes, Caroline Rogerson.
Landscape architect.- Gross Max.
Structural engineer.- Adams Kara Taylor.
Services engineer.- Services engineer, Access consultant, Acoustic consultant, Fire consultant, Lighting consultant, Façade consultant.- Arup.
Quantity surveyor.- Gardiner & Theobold.

Contractor.- R Durtnell & Sons.
Date.- 2006-2011.
Gross floor area.- 3,100 sqm.
Client.- Kent County Council.

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Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

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Published on: August 7, 2015
Cite:
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
"Turner Contemporary named as new 21st century British landmark" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/turner-contemporary-named-new-21st-century-british-landmark> ISSN 1139-6415
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