Tate Modern is to become a space for socialising, debating and interaction as part of a £260m restructure. In decades gone by, a visit to a leading national art gallery would usually mean a gentle meander around silent galleries to peer intently at the country’s finest works.

Those days, it appears, are a thing of the past as Tate Modern unveils new plans to suit the modern era: a gallery built for socialising.

A £260m revamp of the London gallery will see the majority of its space turned over to interaction, debate and discussion to suit the needs of visitors in 2015.

Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, said visitors would be welcome to use its galleries as a “social and recreational space”, after modern art changed the way people view institutions forever.

“Art itself has changed, and we need to find a new way of showing the collection,” he said.

The new Tate Modern, due to be unveiled to the public on June 17, will see a complete rehang of its collection, with 60 per cent more display space and a new ten-storey Switch House behind its current building with a view over London.

The building, which has gone over budget by £45m from its original plans a decade ago, will have 60 per cent more display space.

In particular, it will focus of creating spaces for visitors to meet and talk, after 47 per cent of those they surveyed said they would like the gallery to have “space for encounters”.

Plans include extensive seating areas, more open spaces and a room dedicated to debate and discussion.

It will also include a series of new, smaller galleries housing part of the permanent collection in a more traditional manner, as Sir Nicholas said visitors had complained its old galleries were too large to manage.

He added the new design would reflect the “increasingly sophisticated” public, balancing a focus on interaction with art and “some quiet moments too”.

Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, added the plans had been inspired in part after the 2003 Weather Project exhibition, featuring a rising sun in the Turbine Hall, had changed the way people wanted to take in art.

“Instead of addressing it as a problem, it was a challenge to see the needs of the public changing,” he said.

“So there will be much more space for social interaction: meeting up, exchange ideas, conversation.

“We’re not the only ones, but we’re the first

Speaking at Tate’s annual report, Sir Nicholas and Lord Browne, the chairman of Tate’s trustees, announced the galleries had received record numbers for their exhibitions this year.

Nearly eight million people have visited Tate’s four galleries, with 3.5 million of them being under 35 years old: the youngest demographic of any art museum in the world.