The [DCA] Dundee Contemporary Arts is a modern building for entertainment and the sophisticated Arts and culture in Dundee, UK
The [DCA] Dundee Contemporary Arts is a modern building for entertainment and the sophisticated Arts and culture in Dundee. The DCA resulted from a competition set by the Client - City of Dundee Council - in 1996. It has succeeded in making a public arts venue which is inclusive and enticing and encourages interaction between the public and many forms of visual arts. Dundee Contemporary Arts is the largest and most complex project that Richard Murphy Architects has completed. The aim of the scheme, according to the architects, was to group all activities, galleries, cinemas, print workshops, shop and research facilities, around a central social space and café. Dundee Contemporary Arts partially reuses the brick warehouse of the former MacLean’s garage and forms an L-shaped plan on a site which falls three storeys from front to back. The DCA café and foyer sit at the internal corner of this L and are therefore at the heart of the building in plan and section. The Dundee Contemporary Arts site has a very narrow street frontage between the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Georgian house of the Clydesdale Bank. In order to draw visitors into the building Richard Murphy aligned the foyer with the street opposite so that it might form an extension of that public realm in the building. The entrance prow is unique, in my experience, and creates a subtle DCA trademark. The solid timber entrance doors are set back below an angled canopy adjacent to the shop which sadly takes prime position. Continuous rooflights cast sunlight and shadow rhythms across the internal walls of the foyer drawing the eye to the furthest part of the plan. This theme of the use of light is continued by the use of windows to give glimpses of the Tay estuary to the south and also between foyer, café, galleries and cinemas.
Size: 3888px × 2592px
Location: Dundee, Angus, Tayside, Scotland, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © Dundee Photographics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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