These photographs of The Hepworth Wakefield Gallery by Wojtek Gurak and designed by David Chipperfield. Still under construction the new art gallery will open May 21, 2011. Situated next to the River Calder, has ten gallery spaces displaying historic and modern art as well as temporary exhibitions of contemporary art making it one of the largest purpose-built galleries outside of London. The program also includes an auditorium, learning studios, garden, cafe and shop.

The Hepworth Wakefield is the relocation and expansion of the city's existing art gallery to the conservation area at the headland of the River Calder.

The gallery's existing collection contains mayor British and European artists and The Hepworth Wakefield will additionally house unique collection of thirty original plasters by the locally born artist Barbara Hepworth.

The Gallery building is formed a conglomeration of different sized trapezoidal blocks, responding to the scale and rooflines of the surrounding small scale industrial buildings.

With water on two sides and visibility from all directions, the site - and therefore the building- has no front or back elevation.

The building blocks form the rooms of the building. The galleries on the upper floor are sized according to the scale of the works, with smaller rooms for earlier works and larger rooms for contemporary works.

At the lower level the rooms contain the other gallery functions - a performance space, educational workshops, public facilities and the administration and back of house areas.

Credits:

Client: Wakefield. Metropolitan. District Council.
Gross Floor Area: 5,232 m2
Design Architect: David Chipperfield Architects.
Structural & Services Engineer: Ramboll UK Ltd
Bridge Engineer: Ramboll UK Ltd
Lighting Consultant: Arup
Landscape Architect: Gross Max
Project Manager: Turner & Townsend
Quantity Surveyor: Turner & Townsend
Digital Imaging: David Chipperfield Architects.

Read more
Read less

More information

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.

Read more
Published on: February 18, 2011
Cite: "THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD. Opening 5/2011" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/hepworth-wakefield-opening-52011> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...