Framing the future

It’s an island country that has a royal family, drives on the left, drinks lots of tea and doesn’t always say what it means. And yet no architect from Japan has ever received a major commission for the capital of the other country my sentence describes – Britain. The recent choice of Kengo Kuma and Associates of Tokyo to design (with British firms BDP and MICA) the new wing of the National Gallery in London is therefore notable even before examination of its proposal. Pleasingly, though, what has been released as part of that announcement appears positive and confirms some of my predictions from last year.

Just four computer-generated perspectives by Kin Creatives were made available earlier this month, and one of those shows only a hazy view of and from a rooftop terrace complete with selfie-taking backpacker. Two more depict almost the same street-level view. But these and the remaining image do give us an idea of what the KKAA block will look like, how it will sit within St Martin’s Street, the road that borders the development site, and how connection with the existing gallery complex will be made. As I suspected, at least one bridge will accomplish that last task.

The relevant image – looking north, up St Martin’s Street – shows an elevated link at first floor level between the south west corner of the education block in Orange Street and the new wing. It is glazed and, impressively, appears (scaling off the staffage and the existing buildings) to be of triple height though the trick will be to ensure it does not appear dominant since, again as I expected, the street below it is to be closed to vehicle traffic and landscaped, though whether this will mean replacing the trees planted 30 years ago for the Sainsbury Wing can’t be determined. The wittily-placed pigeon at the very bottom edge of the image amuses; the reference to the locale is obvious, but did someone on the wider team know about one particular painting in the gallery’s collection?

The other key image reverses the angle, and looks south toward the main gallery block. It seems to confirm that the KKAA wing will simply project itself north here, creating a new entrance and permanently erasing the current westward turn of St Martin’s Street. The KKAA façade is confirmed as Portland stone, a good choice and one once more aligning with my assumption of a quieter stone material. It appears serrated in plan; this may be what the jury refers to as “stepped massing,” as although that’s actually the wrong term the citation does go on to explain how the feature “allows natural light to be drawn into the building.”

The height of the new wing is also unclear. The citation describes two public levels within the overall complex, a “main floor that incorporates vaults and arches” in “the Sainsbury Wing and North Galleries”, but also an “upper floor” with “a more geometric design.” Is the latter only in the new wing, rendering it taller than the existing wings? Comparison with the surrounding buildings – Westminster’s reference library, the Londoner Hotel – within the perspectives doesn’t really help. There is nothing of the interiors either; the final presentational image is similar to that south-ward street view, with one major difference: it is daytime. So there are some unknowns at this stage, and the paucity of images remains odd.

Viewed from the air the National Gallery today is like a picture frame with three corners. The new wing is the missing piece that will allow what it contains to be seen properly for the first time. From what I have seen so far, Kengo Kuma understands what is needed to achieve that for London. But it isn’t just the architecture that makes me come to that conclusion.

The rain-washed paving, silhouetted umbrella and warmly-lit gallery rooms of that earlier image really spoke to me. Like a still from an unmade film, Kuma’s damp evening off Trafalgar Square shows that he and his team really have understood the place, time and character of the city they are building in.

I hope this is one more prediction that proves correct.