Describing their project, Herzog and de Meuron stated, "It is exciting for us to deal with existing structures because the attendant constraints demand a very different kind of creative energy. In the future, this will be an increasingly important issue in European cities. You cannot always start from scratch.
"We think this is the challenge of the Tate Modern as a hybrid of tradition, Art Deco and super modernism: it is a contemporary building, a building for everybody, a building of the 21st century. And when you don't start from scratch, you need specific architectural strategies that are not primarily motivated by taste or stylistic preferences. Such preferences tend to exclude rather than include something.
"Our strategy was to accept the physical power of Bankside's massive mountain-like brick building and to even enhance it rather than breaking it or trying to diminish it. This is a kind of Aikido strategy where you use your enemy's energy for your own purposes. Instead of fighting it, you take all the energy and shape it in unexpected and new ways."
Architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are now leading a design team to transform the old power station once again, creating a new, expanded Tate Modern. The project is planned for completion in time for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.
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