The Tate Modern

As soon as you walk in to the giant industrial entranceway, following in the footsteps of the other 13,000 people who also visited that day, you get that undeniable feeling of being in 'the place to be'. You're creative, you're at the cutting edge, you're inquisitive! However, as you wander round each gallery room of the Tate Modern, gazing at art like Carl Andre's pile of bricks, the urinal that Marcel Duchamp called a fountain and the spirit levels hanging on the wall that look like they've been left behind by the builders, the likelihood is you will eventually seek out art that you find more thought provoking and inspiring, in my case this is the building itself.

In February of this year I visited the Tate Modern and as has been the case every time I have visited, I left with mixed feelings. Some of the art is good. Some of it isn't. Some of the art makes you think, but a lot of it feels unoriginal. However, I don't go to the Tate Modern just for the art, I go there for the experience and for the architecture.

The interior spaces are flooded with cleverly placed natural light. They're incredibly spacious and feature double and even triple height spaces which seamlessly connect the different levels together. The colour palette is neutral and paired back to ensure that the building is as versatile as possible, so it can house all kinds of installations, and to ensure that the colours don't detract from the art itself. The Tate Modern's industrial past is appropriately paid homage to with the material choices throughout, with a clear theme of concrete and metal.

The Tate Modern now has a new extension, designed by Swiss Architects Herzog & de Meuron.  It was designed to compliment the original building, which was formerly Bankside Power Station until the year 2000 when it was converted.The extension is in the same bold brickwork to match the industrial building and rises ten stories high, mirroring the height of the tower. In my opinion the new building has been successfully integrated in to the existing building, as well as in to the London skyline.