Riverside Museum, Zaha Hadid Glasgow, Building, Image, News, Project

Riverside Museum Glasgow, Scotland : Museum of Transport

Riverside Museum, Kelvinside - design by Zaha Hadid for Glasgow Council

21 Jul 2011 Riverside Museum - Additional Photo: photograph © Tom Manley Photography 22 Jun 2011 Riverside Museum - Opening photographs © Tom Manley Photography 21 Jun 2011 Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson smashed a ceremonial bottle of champagne on the side of the riverside building, which houses the city’s vast of transport and travel collection. Gordon Matherson said: "What a wonderful day. I’m thrilled to be able to hand over to you, the people of Glasgow, Glasgow City Council’s latest wonderful museum. The museum is about the riveting stories of Glaswegians, rather than stories about rivets." Despite heavy rain, by the time the Riverside Museum opened, at 10am, around 100 people had queued up. The Riverside Museum has been funded by the City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Riverside Museum appeal. Like all of the city’s 10 civic museums, admission is free. The Riverside Museum replaces Glasgow’s former Museum Of Transport, the second most visited transport museum in the UK with an average of 500,000 visitors a year. It is expected 800,000 people will visit the new attraction in its first year. 9 Jun 2011 Riverside Museum - Preview Review by e-architect of today's press preview with Zaha Hadid + 25 professional photos + 26 photos (from selection of over 100) by e-architect of the Glasgow Transport Museum online. photographs : Hawkeye Aerial Photography e-architect attended the Glasgow Transport Museum press preview on the 9th of June 2011, which kicked off with a speech by Gordon Matheson, Leader of the City Council. photographs : Hufton + Crow "Being Glasgow we wouldn't except anything other than world calss". He went on to describe the new building as "A beacon on the Clyde". People often ask him "Is this Glasgow's Goggenheim? We don't need a Guggenheim. Glasgow is Scotland's cultural powerhouse already". Glasgow Transport Museum Photos from 9 Jun 2011: photographs © Adrian Welch He thanked Zaha Hadid profusely (twice calling her Ma'am) for her "creativity, energy, passion and committment to my beloved city". photographs : Hufton + Crow Next up was Zaha Hadid. "It is our first cultural building in the UK. I'm really honoured, the Scots have given me two projects" [the other is Maggies Fife in Kirkcaldy]. photographs © Adrian Welch Zaha went on to say "It is very different from many of our other projects. We are taking on this idea of the shed, the station, the train station. It is a fluid space". She elaborated on this fluidity - in the aerial images you can see the building is formed by a warped series of extrusions which related back to the 'pleated' sheds typical of the River Clyde shipyards - saying the extrusions pick up on motorways winding through the countryside, or trains winding along tracks. photographs : Hufton + Crow "If you ask me about the colour...I will restrain myself from saying why" - in fact the light green colour of the interior was THE talking point of the day!. Zaha went on to say the Transport Museum "is quite playful, not like an art gallery, not a white box". photograph : Hufton + Crow Project Architect Jim Heverin spoke next: The Riverside Museum had to be designed from the inside out. It is not about the objects per se but about the objects' stories. photographs : Helene Binet Jim went on to say the "design both addresses the city and the river" alluding to the fact that the building has two entries, though the northern access served by vehicles is dominant. "The central spine is a great concept, column free, the heart of the building". Due to the relationship with the river there is "no back of house, you walk round it, there is no plant externally, it is all in the roof space". photographs : Hawkeye Aerial Photography Then to what is often the most interesting part of a press preview, the questions. We were lucky, there was a warm-up act here, someone asked where the picnic tables were at the Riverside Museum. Zaha was amused, and not alone, but the ripple of amusement dwindled as the questioner refused to give in...Jim had to go further into detail about the granite landscape elements, but Zaha brought the matter to a finish with her offer to design a mobile picnic table that the questioner could purchase and take along. photographs © Adrian Welch The next questioner asked Zaha Hadid why she though the Glasgow Transport Museum was 'different' than her other projects. Zaha said "it is like a soft shed" and that maybe it was similar to the building for BMW (in Germany, also by the same Project Architect). Hadid went on to say "I've been coming here for a long time". A really interesting point for me (ref. various iconic architecture articles) was her statement that "many architects believe the brand should be repetitive. We don't believe that". photographs © Adrian Welch The next questioner asked how much involvement was there by Zaha on the Riverside Museum. Hadid replied "The story of any success is to delegate. I'm a pain to the team, I nitpick. I don't think these guys want me to interefere too much". photographs © Adrian Welch The final questioner asked why equipment blocked the Riverside Museum windows to which Zaha - and indeed many of us - appeared puzzled. She handled it with a quick snap of humour and that was questions over. photographs © Adrian Welch Views on the Glasgow Transport Museum welcome - info(at)e-architect.co.uk. Compared to the old building this is a major step up, an enjoyable building that shows much more of the collection, and in a more engaging way. Glasgow seems to have a propensity for acquiring simple readable forms (aka 'iconic buildings') such as the Science Centre, the 'Armadillo', the Clyde Arc, all not far up the river from the Riverside Museum. photographs © Adrian Welch Concerns raised about the Riverside Museum seem to focus on the unrelenting green colour, the connection to other Clydeside buildings (not anything Zaha Hadid Architects could sort out - a macro issue for the Council) and the severity of the exterior. Re the last point it could be argued that the grey starkness of the Riverside Museum exterior picks up on the industrial landscape of the Clyde, indeed the sombre zinc facades feel appropriate when considered against Glasgow's industrial heritage. After all that is what this building is about, for me it is about letting the next generation know of Glasgow's mighty record when it comes to transport - not just ships, but trams, steam engines and so on. Adrian Welch, e-architect editor photographs © Adrian Welch We took photographs of Zaha Hadid outside the Transport Museum building and were shown round by Project Architect Jim Heverin (with whom I served on an awards jury) followed by a brief meeting with Zaha Hadid. Zaha Hadid with e-architect director Isabelle Lomholt photographs © Adrian Welch Glasgow Transport Museum - Background Glasgow Transport Museum : futher information Glasgow Transport Museum Architects : Zaha Hadid Scottish Zaha Hadid Building : Maggies Fife in Kirkcaldy Taking advantage of the clear blue skies - photographs of the Transport Museum looking across the River Clyde from the south. 11 Feb 2011 Transport building photographs © Adrian Welch Riverside Museum Update - Nov 2009 Glasgow Transport Museum Aerial image of Riverside Museum building picture © webbaviation New Riverside Museum images 16 Nov 2007 Glasgow Transport Museum : images © Zaha Hadid Architects 180107 Glasgow Riverside Museum - new images 18 Jan 2007 Glasgow Transport Museum : images © Zaha Hadid Architects 180107 Glasgow Riverside Museum - new images 20 Nov 2006: Riverside Museum: images © Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Riverside Museum Glasgow Archive Gareth Hoskins Architects, 2nd place proposal: Glasgow Transport Museum Image © Gareth Hoskins Architects

Glasgow Transport Museum Designers: Event Communications - Our Dynamic Earth

Kelvingrove Museum Building, Glasgow

Glasgow Museum - People's Palace

Scottish Architecture

Glasgow School of Art

Zaha Hadid building - Phaeno

image © Gareth Hoskins Architects

Comments / photos for the Transport Museum Glasgow page welcome: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Riverside Museum Glasgow - page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt