Royal Academy of Arts transformation plans unveiled

Enhanced visitor experience will be ready in 2018.

Plans have been unveiled that will see the Royal Academy of Arts in London transformed in time for its 250th anniversary. 

Designed by Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA, the transformation of Britain’s foremost artist-led institution will unite and revitalise the site by linking Burlington House and Burlington Gardens with a bridge that will create a route from Piccadilly to Mayfair. 

Supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant to the tune of £12.7M, the redevelopment will open up elements in order to make the Royal Academy unique throughout the world. 

Described as something that will “fundamentally change” the two-acre site, the redevelopment will provide public spaces for exhibitions and displays throughout the site to give the public a thorough understanding of Royal Academy Collections, while many works will be brought out of storage thanks to the extra space. 

All historic RA Collections will be curated by Christopher Le Brun – the Royal Academy’s President – Richard Deacon RA, Spencer de Grey RA, and other Royal Academicians. 

Work will see dedicated exhibition galleries created for contemporary arts projects, a new Clore Learning Centre for the Royal Academy’s learning programmes that will encourage active participation in creative learning, and a 260-seat double height lecture theatre where lively debate can be expected. 

The size of the theatre is such that the volume of programmes available will double. 

A permanent project space for public display of work by students will be created at the Royal Academy, where integrating the schools into the experience of visitors will clearly show the important role in arts education that the Royal Academy plays, as well as its stellar history of training artists. 

Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA, explained the changes that work will provide. He said: “The project is an architectural solution embedded in the place itself, a series of subtle interventions which will add up to something very different. 

“The big change is that the Royal Academy will have two entrances; a front door facing Piccadilly in the south and a new front door to Burlington Gardens, Cork Street and Bond Street.

“You will be able to go from an exhibition in Burlington House to a lecture in Burlington Gardens through the vaults of the building. You will see the cast corridors, you will see where the schools have been all this time. 

“It’s a small amount of architecture for a profound result.”

Across the site, the changes will see significant improvements to the visitors’ facilities and all the while, the facade of Burlington Gardens will be conserved. 

Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, Secretary and Chief Executive, added: “The physical transformation of the site will fundamentally change our 247-year-old institution. 

“We are, first and foremost, artist-led, home to a community of the world’s greatest artists and architects, and a centre for the training of emerging artists, with practitioners and an art school at our heart.

“This is not just a major building development, it is an undertaking which will transform the psychological, as well as the physical, nature of the Academy.”

Work on the development will be completed in 2018. 

The post Royal Academy of Arts transformation plans unveiled appeared first on UK Construction Online.