Sculptor Antony Gormley writes at length in today’s Guardian about the current proposals for the SBC, to which C20 is strongly opposed.    He does not like the Feilden Clegg Bradley scheme either, and praises the “sculptural integrity” of the SBC.  He writes:

My concern is that the Hayward Gallery, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room would all be buried – not only under a lot of glass and steel – but also under a lot of confusion. Those buildings were designed in a complex, idiosyncratic way, with sculptural integrity. To try to tame this by sitting a shoebox on top of them seems destined to result in something like a dog’s dinner.

He clearly admires the current buildings –  When you really look at the buildings, they have a quiet dignity and purposeful charm of their own, and is particularly fond of the Hayward the architecture of which he says is powerful and provides the impetus for strong ideas and clear, monographic shows.

Whilst we would definitely not want to see the existing buildings demolished (which he does not rule out)its great to see him calling for a solution which will restore the original buildings with dignity and provide sensitive improvement.

And its great to see that the online responses to the article are generally in favour of a much more low key approach.   The sort of thing we show in our current magazine and on the website here.

See the whole text of Antony Gormley’s article here