Sir David Alan Chipperfield is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. Rowan Moore, the architecture critic of The Guardian of London, described his work as serious, solid, not flamboyant or radical, but comfortable with the history and culture of its setting. “He deals in dignity, in gravitas, in memory, and in art.” His works doesn’t reflect a particular style but a variety of projects responding to the context and design brief.
David Chipperfield started his practice with designing various store interiors in London, Tokyo, Paris and New York while his first architectural project was a residential project in London for a famous photographer, Nick Knight in year 1990. And his one of the most important projects in the beginning of his practice was the restoration and reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin. After that, he got to design several museum projects including Museum of Modern Literature, and the Galerie Am Kupfergraben 10, both in Germany. David Chipperfield Architects is a global architectural practice with offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and Shanghai. Following are a few of his projects:
1. River and Rowing Museum, UK by David Chipperfield
The River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames are devoted particularly to the sports of rowing; the town hosted is home to the Annual Royal Regatta Olympic boating events in 1908 and 1948. The building is a blend of modernist and traditional forms and materials. It was inspired by the form of traditional boat sheds, as well as the traditional barns of Oxford shire. The building occupies a space of 2300 square meters and is lifted above the ground on concrete pillars to avoid flooding. The exterior and parts of the interior are covered in planks of non-treated oak, matching the local rural architecture. The roofs and sunscreens are of stainless steel. The entrance has glass walls, and the galleries on the ground floor receive natural light through the roof.
2. Des Moines Public Library, Iowa
The Des Moines Public Library in Des Moines, Iowa, covers an area of 110,000 square feet, and cost 32.3 million dollars to construct. The two-story building has no front or back; instead, it fans out into three wings. A glass tunnel allows passers-by to stroll through the library. Its most distinct feature is an exterior of glass panels with cooper mesh sandwiched between them; the mesh blocks eighty percent of the sunlight while allowing library patrons to gaze out at the park around the library.
3. Museum of Modern Literature, Germany by David Chipperfield
The Museum of Modern Literature is located in the town of Marbach, Germany, and benefits from a panoramic view of the Neckar River. Visitors enter through a pavilion on the top floor and descend to the reading rooms below. While the lighting on the interior is entirely artificial, to protect the manuscripts, each level has a terrace overlooking the countryside. The facades of concrete, glass, and wood are designed to give the impression of both solidity and modernity. The building was awarded the Stirling Prize in 2007
4. America’s Cup Building, Spain
David Chipperfield constructs a new headquarters for America’s Cup on the coast in Valencia, Spain. It was completed in just eleven months. The distinctive features of the 10,000 square meter building are three horizontal levels that overhang the terrace below by as much as fifteen meters, providing shade and an unobstructed view of the sea. The predominant color inside and out is white, with panels of white metal on the ceilings, floors of white resin, and exterior trim of white-painted stainless steel. Exterior accents are provided by planks of wood
5. Neues Museum, Germany
In 1997 David Chipperfield, along with Julian Harrap, won a competition for the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin, which had been severely damaged during World War II. His commission was to recreate the original volume of the museum, both by restoring original spaces and adding new spaces that would respect the historic structure of the building. Reinforced concrete was used for new galleries and the new central staircase, while recycled bricks were used in other spaces, particularly in the north wing and the south dome. Also, some of the scars of the war on the building’s walls were preserved, as an essential part of its history.
6. The Hepworth Wakefield Gallery
The Hepworth Wakefield is a gallery devoted to the work of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth. It is composed of ten trapezoidal blocks; its upper-level galleries are lit by natural light from large windows in the pitched roofs. Its windows have views of the river, historic waterfront and the city skyline. The building’s façade is clad with self-compacting pigmented concrete made on site, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. The architects selected the material to emphasize the gallery’s sculptural appearance.
7. City of Justice Complex, Spain by David Chipperfield
The City of Justice is a group of nine buildings with 241,500 meters of space, which consolidate courtrooms and offices which previously were scattered among seventeen different buildings. The courtrooms are on the ground floor, with offices above. Four of the buildings are connected by a four-story hallway. in addition to the judicial buildings, the complex, on the outskirts of Barcelona, includes a commercial center and retail stores, and a block of low-income residential housing. The facades of the buildings are all the same, made of concrete poured in place and lightly tinted in different shades. David wrote that the purpose of the building was to “break the image of justice as rigid and monolithic”
8. Turner Contemporary Gallery, UK
The new two-storey building is designed to maximize both the dramatic setting between sea and land and the extraordinary light conditions unique to this area that inspired Turner well over a century ago. The public gallery, which has no permanent collection, presents both historic and contemporary works as well as a program of educational and cultural events with a broad community appeal. The building is constructed with a concrete frame and acid-etched glass skin. The envelope has to withstand the corrosive nature of the sea, high humidity levels, strong winds and the occasional wave overtopping the building. The façades are primarily of glass with reinforced windows.
source: https://davidchipperfield.com
9. Coleccion Jumex, Mexico
The Colección Jumex in Mexico City displays one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in Mexico, neighboring a theater and another museum in a modern neighborhood of the city. Zoning restrictions limited the space available, so Chipperfield put the museum administration, shop, and library in existing adjoining buildings, and devoted the Museum almost entirely to exhibit space. The galleries on the upper levels receive natural light from the skylights on the roof facing toward the west. The building is supported on fourteen columns and is built of concrete covered with plaques of travertine limestone from Xalapa, in Veracruz province. The floor-to-ceiling windows on the lower floors have frames of stainless steel.
10. BBC Scotland Headquarters
Located alongside Glasgow’s former docks, the BBC Scotland building sits on an exposed plot of land dominated by the river Clyde. the design aims to encourage creative interaction between its many occupants by connecting all the workspaces. This is achieved through an imposing central atrium configured as a tiered sequence of steps, platforms, and terraces crafted from local red sandstone. A natural ventilation system is embedded between the layers, while the transparency of the façade also maximizes natural light and views over the river. What makes this distinct from conventional offices is that it is more industrial and loft-like in feel, and gives equal importance to collective work areas, individual workstations, and public spaces
