113 . David Chipperfield Architects

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Hepworth Wakefield . West Yorkshire

source: David Chipperfield Architects . photos: courtesy of pontepineapple . more

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 major British and European artists and The Hepworth, Wakefield will additionally house a unique collection of thirty original plasters by the locally born artist Barbara Hepworth.

The gallery building is formed from a conglomeration of differently sized trapezoidal shaped 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.