Tate Modern model development 1
The Tate Modern as it stands now comprises of the original Bankside Power station with some sympathetic modifications by Hertzog & de Meuron and their later addition of the Switch House which has been renamed the Blavatnik Building after Sir Leonard Blavatnik who contributed a substantial amount of money to the project.
Breaking the building down to tangible sections was straightforward for this model. The old and the new… the straight and the not so straight.
We work from all kinds of reference, books, photographs, original drawings and the architects survey drawings. We count bricks, check scales, cross reference dimensions etc. During this stage there’s a lot of notes and lines drawn over everything. It’s interesting to see what's built as per drawing, what’s been drawn as built and what's just poor observation or lazy drafting.
Resolving the power station was relatively straightforward.
We always try a few approaches with the aim of making the model as easy and straightforward for our customers as we can. We started with the obvious vertical walls slotted into the base and worked our way to a solid core which was then clad. The solid core gives the finished model a nice weight.
Resolving what details we can replicate at scale is always interesting, this is one of the best parts of our job. We start in one direction and see where it takes us. Its easy to have a preconceived idea but very often the end result is nothing like you expect! This process always leads to new ideas and approaches to fabricating structures. If you want to follow along this page can be found here :www.littlebuildingco.com/the-back-of-an-envelope
