Millbank Millennium Pier, which located in front of Tate Britain at Millbank, has been designed by the renowned husband-wife architects David Marks and Julia Barfield, or Marks Barfield. The pier breaks new ground in the design of passenger piers. It connects Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery, all located on the banks of the Thames River, by boat. Consequently the Millbank Millennium Pier’s aesthetic appearance was a critical requirement and the design treats it as a functional floating sculpture formed of faceted steel plates.

Already reviewed as the, “most radical landing stage ever built in Britain” by the Independent Review, the whole idea of Millbank Millennium Pier has been rethought and refined in this design. The design is highly original both aesthetically and in its engineering. The innovations have been developed in response to the pier’s functional requirements, a tight budget and to provide users and onlookers with a stunning visual experience. Marks Barfield is the architects who was also designed the well-known BA London Eye that can be seen, neatly on axis, from the Millbank Millennium Pier’s gangplank.

This award nominated pier is a re-thought of what a pier should like. First is by developing innovative engineering method of securing the pier. Marks Barfield is replacing the traditional, visually dominating vertical dolphins with virtually invisible three radial arms to avoid unsightly piles. These move in critical directions and allow the pontoon to rise and fall freely on the tide. Two arms hold the pier at a set distance from the bank while the gangplank, made from an enormous steel truss, restrains it in line with the river.

And second by developing an architectural concept that integrates the ramp, steps and pontoon shelter within a single structural folded form. This is defined by continuous surfaces of plate steel forming a single folded skin. Thus, the traditional pontoon construction technique of using flat plate steel welded together to form a floating box, was extended upwards to encompass the whole structure. Techniques developed in the computer gaming industry of “polygon reduction” were used to maximize the efficiency of the surface geometry at the design stage. Later, working with the steelwork contractor, a system of fabrication was developed which could be used in all areas of the Millbank Millennium Pier structure.

The inner surface of the passenger area is defined by timber cladding. This material has traditional naval connotations and adds warmth to the visitor experience. The purpose was to reinterpret its use in a contemporary manner which responded to the continuity of the internal surfaces. The 50 mm larch slats form the internal skin of the waiting room including the ceiling, walls and bench in a singular folded surface. In order to maintain a one-in-twelve gradient for disabled access throughout a six meters tidal range a 60 m brow was needed combined with long fixed-gradient ramps and a stair on the pontoon. The brow is a two layered Warren truss composed in elevation to increase its visual density towards its centre and ends. The geometry was developed to explore how the structure could suggest a continuity of surface and space.

At night the 30 m silver structure Millbank Millennium Pier is featured by Angela Bulloch’s “Flash & Tidal” artwork. The artist who was shortlisted for the 1997 Turner Prize installed the lighting artwork into the Millbank Millennium Pier’s structure and consists of chartreuse and blue lights that glow along the pier’s decks, alternating between high and low tide. As they do so, 63-computer-programmed white lights flash on and off, their sequence changing on every night of the fortnightly Thames tidal cycle.

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