About halfway along the promenade in the coastal town of Margate in south-east England, a terrace of shabby shopfronts has been extended by what looks like an industrial facility. A few steps further, the illusion changes. What had seemed to be an industrial structure is, in fact, the Turner Contemporary, an art gallery consisting of six white cubic volumes in an apparently loose alignment. From the outside, there is a slightly haphazard feeling to the composition, although the layout was carefully considered by the architects. Inside one finds a state of complete clarity, with spaces logically arranged along a central circulation spine. Each of the volumes is in concrete topped by a simple, south-facing, monopitch steel roof. The taller facades are oriented to the north and the sea. The building is all about light. It was the quality of light that attracted J. M. W. Turner – the English artist after whom the gallery is named – to paint here; and it is the same light that reveals the quality of this building. From outside, it appears iridescent in the gleam of the sun. When the sky is grey, the gallery has a milky, luminous quality. This is the outcome of the sandblasted finish to the laminated glass rainscreen facade. Although the cladding is set in front of opaque concrete walls, it retains its luminosity. Skilful structural engineering enabled large, clear-glass windows to be created in the north face, allowing views into some of the internal spaces. (Christopher Hill)
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