A tensile fabric structure for the roof, based on parametric design principles

Patrik Schumacher and Zaha Hadid

Serpentine Gallery is now becoming a kind of cultural campus right in the heart of London with the opening of the Sackler Gallery designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.  The newly converted exhibition space occupies a gunpowder house in the Royal Parks, with an extension for the restaurant and social events, which could easily be mistaken for a temporary pavilion, but is in fact Hadid’s first permanent building in central London.

There is a great fusion of styles between the neo-classical brick building with Doric columns and the extension’s 70s inspired futuristic curvilinear volume. Its wave-like ceiling is constructed of a fibre glass material which has been engineered to connect as support between the elements. This structural expertise is based on the parametric system, an architectural style, where forms are generated through a computational process. Parametricism as a stylistic movement has been defined by Patrik Schumacher, Hadid’s close collaborator for the past 25 years and co-director of the practice.
http://www.patrikschumacher.com/Texts/Parametricism%20as%20Style.htm

The landscape surrounding the gallery is designed by Arabella Lennox-Boyd, echoing the architectural forms of the extension. The composition with old architecture and the new avant-garde forms is a great showcase of parametric styles being integrated into historic sites. On this spectacular site at the bend of the West Carriage Drive it all works so well. But of course, the starting point in the middle of one of the best kept parks in the world has no comparison.

The gallery will open to the public Saturday 28th September with an exhibition by Adrian Villar Rojas

Designed in 1923 by Palmer and Turner Architect, Pedder Building is one of the last colonial era buildings in the heart of Hong Kong’s Central district. Surrounded by modern skyscrapers, this narrow eight-storey house is characterised by neoclassical elements – arches, columns, sculpted medallions, classical balustrades and steel windows.

Although the Pedder building has been classified with a Grade II historical status by the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments office, this does not mean that the future of the building is secured. Rather Grade II listing only requires the owners to “preserve the building selectively”. In practice means this that: “demolition works or building works such as alteration/ renovation works which may affect the heritage value of the building are not encouraged”.

While the British Government passes strict preservation laws at home, in Hong Kong the colonial officials often sided with property owners and developers. In the city’s feverish property market where land is at the premium, many of the privately owned historical buildings in Hong Kong are intentionally allowed to degrade into a state of despair.

The Pedder building has mainly been a commercial building for shops, clinics and offices and for seventeen years with Shanghai Tang’s flagship store occupying two of its floors. In 2011 things changed dramatically when Shanghai Tang lost the bid for its space to Abercrombie & Fitch, which reportedly agreed to pay over HK$7 million ($900 000) – two and half times the previous monthly rent. Shanghai Tang was forced to move out. Soon other small businesses followed.

Now some of the world’s most established art dealers have their gallery spaces in the Pedder building. Gagosian, Pearl Lam and Simon Lee have their Hong Kong branches there, and the last one to move in was Lehmann Maupin, who took up a space redesigned by Rem Koolhaas in March. During Art Basel Hong Kong last week the international art crowds invaded the building when the Pedder-based galleries hosted their opening all on the same evening.

Because architecture serves as a visual evidence of a city’s putative identity, with the demolished buildings also cultural memories are erased. Thus the preservation of the city’s old colonial architecture – or its destruction – needs to be read against Hong Kong’s search to find its own historical and cultural specificity and subjectivity. Pedder building’s new life as a home of Hong Kong’s top art galleries can be read as an embodiment of a wilful re-invention. When in the past it was mostly known for cut-label fashion shops selling factory rejects, today it has become a symbol of a creative, dynamic and global Hong Kong – aiming towards excellence and high culture.

post and photo by Riina Yrjölä