Something about my induction week: Hepworth Wakefield Museum

In the same day we visited the Hepworth Wakefield Museum, designed by David Chipperfield. Before coming in the museum, I started to take photos of all the facades. This museum is placed along the Calder river, so just coming from a small bridge it's possible to appreciate also the facade facing on the river.

Just from this point of view the building seems floating on the river and looking at the floor joint it's possible to see another choise made by the architect: an other hint before going in the museum. 

On the ground floor there are just the shop, the cafè and workshop rooms. And the first thing that I noticed were the lights on the ceiling. Like light blades, another hint for me before going upstairs.

Looking around me I started to think about a series of architectural choises: the light is the main character here, not just because they needed a good light design for the exposition but because it's seems to be part of the entire architecture. In fact, in the exhibit rooms D. Chipperfield has reused the motif of light blades but changing it in movable spotlights. These spotlights are movable along a trak and they can be rotate as necessary for portraits or sculptures.

 

Everything is temporary or seems flying or anyway gives you a lightness sensation as it was possible to grasp outside. This lightness is not due just to light but is reseached in architectural details, starting from the white walls, or the with platforms that have like a rearward step colored with  grey (probably this helps to perceive better the sensation of lightness?) and also for the windows, tall as the walls, facing on the river (also this detail help to make the visitor feel flying). But these walls seem to have also another role because they are located to intrigue the visitor. Behind them you could find a sculpture or a window which light is seeped exactly from these walls to make the light less cutting. Other times these walls just hide service rooms or security exit doors and it's just your curiosity that make you go there to find out. The colours and the materials too help to read the architecture and so the shingle. Infact the shingle itself produces, through different positions and declivities, a light always different that is also seeped from the brise soleil added to the window. This double shingle seeps the light softly or like an aggressive light blade. So again the shingle is ascribable to the light topic.