Deconstructing Tate Modern

AbstractThe conversion of the former Bankside power station into Tate Modern by Herzog & De Meuron is the story of a piece of star architecture that brought powerful impulses not only to its surroundings but to the entire city of London. This paper approaches this success story by focussing on the competition brief and the subsequent competition as key moments in the whole process. The crucial quality of the Tate Modern planning process has to be seen in the “pre-phase”, i.e. the phase before conventional planning takes place. In the case of Tate Modern, this phase functioned as an encompassing problem finding that thoroughly reflected all relevant issues of such an endeavour. Herzog & de Meuron’s competition entry worked as a convincing translation of this set of strategic topics into a powerful architectural concept for a new museum. This success story highlights three key elements for complex planning projects in order to address the various topics and challenges: the importance of a substantial prepha...