All Things Considered

Sainsbury Centre
Posted by Kate Sullivan

Just down the road from our Norwich home and set in the campus of the University of East Anglia is the acclaimed  Sainbury Centre for Visual Arts.

In 1973, Sir Norman Foster was approached by Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury to build a centre for their growing collection of ancient and contemporary world art, primarily consisting of sculptures of living forms. The Sainsburys donated to the University of East Anglia (UEA) because of it's available space for building such a large gallery as they were insistent that all the work they were donating, stayed under the one roof.

Foster, with a host of notable projects under his belt including the Swiss Re HQ (aka the Gherkin) and the Millau Viaduct, was then an unknown architect. He set out to design a building on campus over looking the River Yare and in front of the existing, concrete accommodation block. The design Foster came up with was at the time very forward thinking. Made out of metal and with large glass panels in prefabricated modular structures, it combined open-planned galleries, offices, teaching area's and a restaurant. In the late 80's, due to the growing collections, provided both by the Sainsburys and the UEA, Foster was assigned to design an extension, he proposed a crescent shaped, partially underground design which was reopened as the Crescent Wing in 1991 giving the gallery valuable amounts of space for temporary exhibitions, studios, workshops and a conservation laboratory.

Spring 2006 saw the opening of yet another extension, this time funded by David Sainsbury, a gift to celebrate his mother Lisa's 90th birthday. This newest construction was built to link the original 1978 building with the 1990's Crescent Wing which now provides another gallery, studio space and a shop.

The latest temporary exhibition is called  After Shock and is due to open on the 14th July, for more details of the permanent collections held in the Centre, click here. For excellent images of some of Norman Fosters projects, visit Foster and Partners.

Posted by Kate Sullivan on June 23rd, 2007