the tank of the new herzog and de meuron extension to tate modern

It looked like architectural conservation gone mad. Tate had already been criticised for its decision to retain and convert grubby old Bankside power station for use as its new gallery of modern art, rather than commission a sparkling new statement of confidence in the future. Why had this Swiss practice been chosen ahead of Britain’s glittering array of hi-tech modernists, who had been frustrated for years by Margaret Thatcher’s lack of interest in public commissions and Prince Charles’s hostility to contemporary architecture? Who were they? Until that time their best-known works had been signal boxes and facilities for the herbal sweet manufacturer Ricola. In 1995, to some bafflement among commentators, Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were appointed architects for what is now called Tate Modern. In which case Tate Modern, the vastly successful museum in Bankside, south London, might be considered a redoubt of this endangered world.

He sees the loss of possibilities of common ground, of cultural experiences shared by different people. There is such a threat around.” He is talking firstly about the threat to European urban civilisation from terrorism, followed some paces behind by his perception that “the middle class is disappearing”.

“The things based on the five senses that we like so much, all these values – that we treat people well. Jacques Herzog, the more talkative half of the pair of boyhood friends who founded the architectural practice Herzog & De Meuron, is worried about the world.

The tank of the new herzog and de meuron extension to tate modern