TIMBER WAVE DESIGN BY AL_A
AT THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
LONDON DESIGN WEEK 2011
TIMBER
WAVEDESIGN BY AL_A AT THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING BY ARUP
LONDON DESIGN WEEK 2011
LONDON DESIGN WEEK 2011
Award-winning architects Amanda Levete Architects and engineering
firm Arup transformed the V&A Museum's Grand Entrance on Cromwell Road with
the installation of a giant timber wave cascading down the steps. Built from
oil-treated American red oak, Timber Wave was a three-dimensional latticework
spiral, 12 metres in diameter, that employs construction techniques and
materials normally used in furniture making to create a majestic three - storey
- high structure.
'The brief was to respond in some way to the entrance of the
V&A. For us it was about making very explicit the London Design Festival
residency there,' says architect Amanda Levete of AL_A. 'We wanted to take the
V&A out onto the street.'
Timber Wave does exactly that, creating an outdoor installation
that is not only graceful, but technically ingenious. Working with engineers
and timber specialists from Arup, AL_A's Timber Wave is a feat of precision
construction.
'We have taken thin hardwood lamination techniquesmore usually
used in furniture making and applied themat a different scale,' says
Levete. 'The timber entrance is three-dimensional and asymmetric in
form, and each timber piece is precisely calibrated for optimal
structural performance and sculptural elegance.' It is the
high strength-to weight ratio of American red oak, an
abundant US hardwood resource, that allows AL_A and Arup to create
this delicate design in such a large scale. The wood has been treated with a
biocide oil treatment that gives red oak the necessary protection to be used
outside.
The recurring structures within Timber Wave reflect the repeated
motif style that is very much part of the didactic tradition of the V&A's
own historic facade. The Grand
Entrance in particular is vast, multilayered and very ornamental, and the design responds to this with a single dynamic form.
Entrance in particular is vast, multilayered and very ornamental, and the design responds to this with a single dynamic form.
AL_A, winner of the V&A's recent international
competition to design a new courtyard and underground
extension, is the international design and architecture
studio of Stirling Prize-winning architect Amanda Levete, a
former partner of Future Systems, the practice widely regarded as
'laying down the agenda for architecture in the 21st
century'. Future Systems achieved acclaim for seminal
designs such as the Selfridges department store in
Birmingham and the media centre at Lord's Cricket Ground - the
world's first aluminium building. Amanda Levete is the V&A's
architect of the moment. Whilst gearing up to build the new galleries
at the V&A's Exhibition Road entrance,AL_A also present
Timber Wave - an exciting and dramatic installation for Cromwell
Road, bringing the London Design Festival's residency at the museum out onto
the street in glorious celebration of the Festival.
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/2011-timber-wave-ala-va-2011
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM LONDON
THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
A Brief History of the Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The story of the V&A's foundation helps to explain its astonishing richness and diversity.
The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Profits from the Exhibition were used to establish the Museum of Manufactures, as it was initially known, and exhibits were purchased to form the basis of its collections.
The Museum moved to its present site in 1857 and was renamed the South Kensington Museum. Its collections expanded rapidly as it set out to acquire the best examples of metalwork, furniture, textiles and all other forms of decorative art from all periods. It also acquired fine art - paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture - in order to tell a more complete history of art and design.
Generous funding and a less competitive art market than today's meant that the young Museum was able to make many very important acquisitions. The Museum itself also grew, with new buildings being added as and when needed. Many of these buildings, with their iron frames and glass roofs, were intended to be semi-permanent exhibition halls, but they have all survived and are one of the finest groups of Victorian buildings in Britain.
In 1899, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new building designed to give the Museum a grand façade and main entrance. To mark the occasion, it was renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in memory of the enthusiastic support Prince Albert had given to its foundation.
Throughout the 20th century, the collections continued to grow. While expanding its historical collections, the V&A also maintained its acquisition of contemporary objects, starting with a collection of Art Nouveau furniture in 1900.
The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day.
Although the V&A's collections are international in their scope, they contain many particularly important British works - especially British silver, ceramics, textiles and furniture.
The British collections enable the V&A to explain not just the history of design in the British Isles but also the broader sweep of their cultural history. The British Galleries are designed to give visitors from this country and from around the world a new insight into the history of Britain by bringing us closer to the thoughts and lives of key people in an influential culture.
The Victoria and Albert Museum also offers visitors the chance to experience at first hand the splendour of the arts of Asia. Britain's long association with India and South East Asia has given the V&A the opportunity to acquire magnificent works from the cultures of that region. Objects in all media are represented, including stone and bronze sculpture, furniture and woodwork, jewellery and metalwork and collections of Indian miniature painting and textiles which are among the most important in the world.
Visitors can also enjoy galleries devoted to the art of Japan, China, Korea and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic gallery displays some truly spectacular carpets.
The V&A also reflects the diverse nature of contemporary Asian cultures, collecting contemporary Asian art and design as diverse as Japanese studio crafts and Indian film posters.
Contemporary design has always been at the heart of the V&A's work and the Museum remains true to its founding mission of promoting excellence in design and manufacturing. It works hard to encourage contemporary designers, acquiring their work, and providing inspiration through its displays.
Many of Britain's most successful designers have used the V&A as a source of ideas and stimulation and visitors to the V&A have the opportunity to see their work alongside the historic collections which helped shape them.
Henry Cole, the V&A's first director, declared that the Museum should be a 'schoolroom for everyone'. The V&A today offers visitors the chance to explore more deeply by using its study rooms, guided tours, gallery activities, lectures and special events. Whether you want to enjoy the galleries independently, or get more closely involved, there are many ways to discover the delights of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/a-brief-history-of-the-museum/
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM' DIRECTOR MARTIN ROTH
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM DRAWING BY JAMES ALLEN 2008
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM' DIRECTOR MARTIN ROTH
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM LONDON
AMANDA LEVETE
Levete has received a number of international commissions, including a new
gallery, courtyard and entrance for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a
1.5 million square foot luxury shopping mall and 6-star hotel in Bangkok
already on site, and a cultural centre in Lisbon commissioned by EDP. She has
forged long-term relationships with artists resulting in a joint project with
Anish Kapoor for the Naples Subway. Her individual furniture pieces for
Established & Sons have been called sublime, pushing materials and design
to their limits. Through this relationship she has produced a number of
defining pieces including Drift bench and the Around the Corner collection—each
carved into a form by an advanced software program and then worked by hand.
Levete is a trustee of Artangel, the Young Foundation and the Arts
Foundation. She is a regular TV and radio broadcaster and writes for a number
of magazines. She trained at the Architectural Association and worked for
Richard Rogers before joining Future Systems as a partner in 1989.
The formation of AL_A in 2009 realised Levete’s ambition to create a
collaborative office following her partnership with the late Jan Kaplický at
Future Systems where she completed award-winning and internationally recognised
buildings including Selfridges department store in Birmingham and the Media
Centre at Lord’s cricket ground which won the prestigious Stirling Prize.
ARUP
In 1946, philosopher and engineer Ove Arup set up his
consulting engineering business in London. In the more than 60 years that have
followed, the business has grown into an international consulting firm of
unparalleled scope, owned in trust for its employees and using the business
principles that Ove Arup first set out – and which he articulated for posterity
in 1970 in his forward-looking ‘key
speech’.
Right from the start, Arup was known for its close and
exceptionally productive collaborations with leading and avant-garde
architects. In its first two decades, the firm expanded rapidly, and earned a
formidable reputation for devising advanced and economical solutions for
buildings – a reputation it still enjoys today.
By 1976, Arup’s reputation had become truly global
with the completion of the Sydney
Opera House. By this time, the firm had opened offices in Northern
Europe, Southern Africa, South East Asia and Australia. Its breadth of
expertise was already considerable: this ranged from offshore
engineering, acoustics, facades,
and specialist skills such as impact, blast, risk and seismic
engineering, to relatively-niche areas such as designing
transportation containers for nuclear
waste.
The firm’s portfolio today is broad and wide-ranging.
Many of the world’s most iconic sports stadia are Arup projects – such as Beijing’s Water Cube, the Singapore
Sport's Hub and London Aquatics Centre.
Arup’s work goes beyond buildings and infrastructure,
however. We collaborated with car manufacturers on the design of the SuperLight
car, which uses considerably less energy than the petrol equivalent.
Through our Operational Readiness, Activation and Transition
(ORAT) service we help
clients and other stakeholders plan for the seamless opening and operation of
major facilities like airports and hospitals or for major events. Arup has also
developed a range of proprietary computer modelling tools which it sells around
the world, as well as innovations such as our SoundLab,
an aural-realisation tool with which clients can hear subjectively how
different design options perform acoustically – before they are actually built.
Arup now has over 92
offices across Europe,
North America, Africa, Australasia and South East Asia. We employ more than
12,000 people globally.
http://www.arup.com/About_us/A_better_way/History.aspx
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