Southbank Centre
A £35m project involving the restoration and redesign of London’s iconic Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery, transforming and modernising them for the next generation of audiences and artists, has recently been completed.
The project was carried out by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, (FCBStudios), working with main contractors BAM. Archer Humphryes Architects was responsible for the interior architecture for the Foyer Hospitality area, and Softroom for the Hayward Gallery café.
Located in Belvedere Road, central London, the Southbank Centre, with its origins in the 1951 Festival of Britain, is one of the great democratic and imaginative buildings of the last century and holds a unique place in the London arts scene.
Working with the buildings’ stunning sculptural spaces, the conservation works replaced services, improved disabled facilities and environmental performance, refurbished original finishes, and replaced technical infrastructure to support Southbank Centre’s ever diversifying artistic programming.
A new roof to the Hayward Gallery elegantly recreates the iconic pyramidal profiles and brings controllable daylight into the upper galleries, described by Henry Moore as ‘God’s daylight’ during the 60s design process – which is something the original rooflights never achieved.
Richard Battye, Associate at FCBStudios said: “The roof is a key element of the project, and finally, after 50 years, brings controllable natural light flooding into the upper galleries. This roof is the result of a truly successful three-way design collaboration between FCBStudios, lighting designers Max Fordham and the Hayward Gallery team lead by Ralph Rugoff.”
A timber structure, incorporating pyramids of stainless steel and glass, the new roof re-imagines the form of the original pyramidal rooflights as solar shading that, in combination with the deeply coffered ceiling below, control daylight while simultaneously allowing the changing intensity and colour of the light outside to be felt inside the galleries.
A large proportion of the project involved the refurbishment of the centre’s 1960s buildings. The original buildings are mostly concrete, with a volume of 22,400m3. As well as cleaning the concrete, and a few minor repairs, timber linings were French Polished as they had been originally, and other original finishes refurbished.
In the Queen Elizabeth Hall, reversed ventilation improves comfort and minimises energy use. A new overhead lighting bridge is concealed to reveal the original volume.
Back of house in the Queen Elizabeth Hall was originally a window-free warren of slightly disorientating spaces. To improve this, a new artists’ entrance and bar have been worked into some unused external space where generous new rooflights provide a connection to outside, orientation, framed views of some of the hall’s most astounding concrete gymnastics and new accessible facilities for artists.
The foyer has been opened up with full height opening windows that soften the threshold to encourage new visitors.
Richard Battye concluded: “The project’s significant challenge was incorporating the infrastructure for contemporary artistic use into spatially complex buildings of great architectural and cultural significance.
“For example, when the Hayward Gallery opened it had a single analogue telephone in each gallery – but now has the power and data infrastructure for large complex audiovisual installations.
“To complete the infrastructure required to support Southbank Centre’s ambitious and progressive arts programming, over 1,000 new openings were made through the concrete structure, with each one scheduled and assessed by structural engineers Arup.
“Through these openings run the air, services, power, data and AV cabling that enables Southbank Centre to programme everything, everywhere, all the time – 62km of fibre connections and over 300km of wiring to the concert hall dimmers being just a small part of it.”
The project was undertaken in a single phase and funded with £16.7m from Arts Council England, £4.9m from the HLF, £3.9m raised by Southbank Centre’s ‘Let the Light In’ appeal, generous support from trusts, foundations, individuals, and Southbank Centre’s own funds.
COCO Lighting
Since 2000 COCO Lighting has been renowned as the specialists in standard and emergency commercial LED lighting conversions.
As part of a two-year, £28 million restoration of London’s prestigious South Bank Centre, COCO Lighting worked closely with NG Bailey and Max Fordham in the extensive repair and conversions to the existing lighting.
This covered the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery areas where fittings were refurbished and installed with bespoke LED boards and control gear.
Maintaining the original character and appearance was of upmost importance as well as providing a reliable and low energy source of lighting for these areas.
As one of the early adopters to LED lighting COCO are renowned within the industry in offering only the best quality components whilst working to strict guidelines laid down by the UK’s advisory body the Lighting Industry Association (LIA).
“We felt privileged to be part of this project that receives thousands of visitors from around the world each year presenting world class exhibitions.”
Press Glass
Press Glass specialises in the supply of a wide range of high complexity glass units in large sizes and high volume, for the commercial and residential markets. Press Glass is a leading European producer of processed flat glass for the construction industry.
Operating since 1991, Press Glass has developed into a modern, dynamic and globally active organisation that contributes to the development of its business partners and creates valuable careers. The company’s mission is to strengthen the competitiveness of its customers by consistently exceeding expectations.
Press Glass operated in the UK market for more than 15 years, on hundreds of significant projects. The company was recently involved with the restoration and redesign of London’s iconic Southbank Centre Queen Elizabeth Hall: Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery.
Press Glass played an active part in the approval process of the final materials & substrates chowed by the client. This included Vanceva white opacified interlayers and acid etched low iron glass to achieve an outstanding and fully satisfying visual effect and light transmittance through the renovated roof of the gallery.
Matthew Kershaw, Area Sales Manager, said:
“We are proud to be involved in high profile and challenging UK projects, because it demonstrates Press Glass is a trustworthy supplier of high complexity glasses.”
