The Hepworth, Wakefield, UK

Architect	David Chipperfield Architects, London
Date Built	2003 - 2011
Location	Wakefield Waterfront
Description
The Hepworth Gallery says that David Chipperfield's design , "....responded imaginatively to the gallery’s waterfront setting and industrial heritage of the site. The gallery is able to source the majority of its heating and cooling from the river’s flow. The design of the galleries allows the introduction of daylight through skylights and imposing floor-to-ceiling windows. The windows offer visitors wonderful views of the River Calder, important local landmarks such as the medieval Chantry Chapel and Wakefield Cathedral, and the Emley Moor Transmitting Station tower, the tallest freestanding structure in the United Kingdom." Chipperfield's website points out that, "... The almost geological composition is a conglomerate of diverse irregular forms tightly fitting with each other. This form was driven by the internal programme and organisation of the gallery. Each single volume represents and coincides with a single space, each unique in size and shape. To the north, where the river level drops at the weir, the building steps into the water just as many of the old mills and warehouses do along the river. The monolithic appearance and composition is accentuated by the use of pigmented in-situ concrete." Take a look inside: "From inside the individual blocks, the outer morphology can be clearly seen in ceilings that slope parallel to the outer roofs, and rooms in which no two surfaces lie parallel to one another. Walls meet at diverse angles, and the variations in size and ceiling pitch give each room a unique atmosphere." "Daylight enters the galleries through carefully placed incisions in the blocks. The main source in each gallery is a light slot running the full width of the ceiling at the highest end of the space." "In addition to this, several of the galleries feature a window, scaled according to the orientation and importance of the view, framing an aspect of the world surrounding the gallery and linking Hepworth’s sculptures to the landscape in which she grew up."