Tate Modern Tate 2: Herzog and de Meuron go gothic

If Tate Modern, the contemporary art museum opened in 2000, is a bilaterally-split classical composition, then the design for Tate Modern 2 by the same architects, Herzog and de Meuron, erupts into joyous asymmetrical gothic. Freed from the formal geometry of Giles Gilbert Scott’s mid 20th century power station with its central tower, the Swiss architects - 11 years on from their original commission and now a great deal more internationally famous - have decided to have fun.

It is as simple as that: the architects admit they decided to do exactly the opposite of what they did before. Or as Jacques Herzog says, “To make it too hermetic would be the wrong answer.” Since what they did before was extraordinarily restrained compared to some of the competing designs for the museum, it follows that what comes now must be extremely exuberant. And thus it proves.