How to build a museum

Associated media

The Biography of a Building: How Robert Sainsbury and Norman Foster Built a Great Museum

Witold Rybczynski

The Biography of a Building tells the story of how Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, of the supermarket chain of that name, financed a gallery to house their growing art collection. It describes how their vision, and that of their architect Norman Foster, resulted in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. It is, like all biographies, a tale of conception, birth, teething problems, awkward teenage years and flourishing middle years. 

As with the life story of any illustrious person this building, affectionately labelled ‘the shed’, contains within its memoirs the biographies of others. It is an account of how talents were discovered and reputations were made.  Henry Moore and Francis Bacon were championed and nurtured by the Sainsburys; Robert Sainsbury guaranteed Bacon’s bank account while he was establishing himself as an artist.

For the then young and relatively unknown architect Norman Foster and his team, the SCVA was the first public building they designed and the one that inspired their later project of Stansted airport, which itself became a blueprint for airport design around the world. This is also a biography of how, with the Sainsbury’s gift of their eclectic collection of art and artefacts from all over the globe, the University’s School of Fine Art became the School of World Art Studies and Museology: now a world-leading research unit and top-ranking history of art department.

Initially Rybczynski was not keen to write a book about the Sainsbury Centre because the suggestion had come from the Sainsbury family – not from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, the original benefactors of the building, but their son David and his wife Susie. If the book was intended, as Rybczynski suspected, to be a memorial to Robert and Lisa Sainsbury’s philanthropy, he was not interested in writing it and initially declined the commission. After some deliberation, however, he agreed to consider the project and after visiting the SCVA he ‘decided to write about this place: the story was simply too compelling’. 

It is indeed a compelling story. Rybczynski chronicles how the Sainsbury’s love of art turned into a collection of works that dominated their home in Smith Square, London, prompting them to consider rehousing most of the works.  Through a friendship with the then vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia (UEA), Frank Thistlethwaite, Robert Sainsbury offered his collection to the UEA along with a generous financial donation. This donation was to be spent on a building that would serve as a gallery for the collection and a home for the School of Fine Arts, which at the time was unsuitably located elsewhere on the campus; this, it seems, was the easy part.

The Sainsburys did not just hand over their money and walk away; they were completely involved in every aspect of the Sainsbury Centre’s design and conception, inside and out. They worked very closely with Norman Foster and, before deciding on the final design of the building, they travelled around the world looking at galleries and museums, noting exteriors, interiors and what did or did not work well.

They had very strong views about what they wanted for their money. They wanted their collection to be part of everyday life as it was in Smith Square and suggested that by displaying it in a building that would house the art history school, students could interact with the works on a daily basis. They wanted comfortable leather chairs placed in the gallery and for the floor to be carpeted, a rather unusual idea for an art gallery, where hard flooring was the norm. Unlike most galleries, the works were to hang on moveable walls or stand on plinths that would appear to be dotted about with no sense of viewing order or deference to geography. The lighting was to be brighter than normal and include a lot of natural daylight. There was to be no air conditioning and none of the temperature regulation often essential to the preservation of artworks. Nothing about the Sainsbury’s concept was usual for an art gallery.

These unusual ideas caused many problems and conflicts of interest within the design team. Rybczynski notes that once, when Foster explained a plan to Lisa Sainsbury for the interior she ‘dismissed it out of hand…’.Foster also faced protests from the school staff, who did not like the design of their offices, and from the estates manager Gordon Marshall who eventually ‘couldn’t be in the same room as [the Sainsburys]’.These conflicts are insights not just into the design of a building but the design of a gallery, the requirements of the school, students and staff and the bureaucracy that surrounds a university, not to mention the finances involved in constructing and maintaining a building. Rybczynski highlights the struggle between private money, used to fund the building, and the university that would ultimately have to sustain part of the maintenance costs within its budget.

Foster’s problems did not end with the completion of the building; some corrosion was discovered early on in the roofing panels. In addition, some of the Sainsburys’ ideas, such as lack of air-conditioning, made the building uncomfortably hot in good weather. Nonetheless, Foster’s brilliant building design allowed for easy repairs and changes to the structure both internally and externally, though usually at great expense. This was an evolutionary project and Rybczynski points out that some of the changes that came about as a consequence of these failures ultimately resulted in a better building. In 1980 the Sainsbury Centre was named Museum of the Year and the SCVA building won many awards for its architectural design.

My only criticism of the book arises from Rybczynski’s inclusion of the mini biographies of other small galleries such as the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Barnes Collection. No doubt he intended them to add context to the historical place the Sainsbury Centre held in the genre of small galleries and the differences that exist. There are, however, plenty of accounts and comparisons with other establishments throughout his book to fulfil that requirement and this section was a distraction in an otherwise captivating account. That said, budding curators would do well to read this account.

One of the most charming anecdotes included in the narrative comes from Robert Sainsbury’s son, who, in his desire to find a present for his father’s 80th birthday, commissioned Norman Foster to provide a sketch for an extension to the SCVA. This fantasy of how the building could be added to in the (distant) future so thrilled Robert Sainsbury he seized on the idea straight away and insisted that the plan be put into action. For David Sainsbury, who had taken over all the financial responsibility for the Sainsbury Centre from his father some years earlier, it turned out to be a very expensive birthday present.

This biography of the SCVA is a brief outline of the birth of a collection, and an in-depth account of its rehousing. It details the problems encountered with the design and construction of an innovative building and narrates the Sainsburys’ vision, aided by some excellent photographs. Though Rybczynski never met Robert or Lisa Sainsbury, he clearly gets to know the couple through their papers and by speaking to people associated with the project who became very close to them, particularly Foster.  His portrayal of the Sainsburys appears even-handed and he reports their faults as well as their strengths. He notes the Sainsburys’ success in finally achieving what they set out to do; the art is integrated fully into the teaching programme as the Sainsburys had intended.

Though Rybczynski does not include any observations from the students who currently study at the school, he does comment that the building is‘a congenial setting for human activity, looking at art, studying, eating lunch, starting out of the window’.From the time I have spent in the building, I know these sentiments resonate with students and staff alike, confirming that the Sainsburys achieved their goal.

Rybczynski clearly admires what has been achieved with both the SCVA building and its interior; if he hoped to avoid writing a memorial to Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, I am not sure he succeeded and I do not think it matters. The resulting book is a compelling account of how innovation and determination created a compelling building.

The Biography of a Building: How Robert Sainsbury and Norman Foster Built a Great Museum by Witold Rybczynski is published by Thames and Hudson, 2011. 208 pp., 75 illus, £19.95. ISBN 978-0-500-342763