final model photos

vignettes

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Below are some vignettes, using perspective views to show the main sequence of spaces in my design. I have arranged them like film strips, showing sequential movement through these spaces, and individual journeys that contribute to an overall experience.

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final drawings

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PLEASE NOTE: It may seem that my design exceeds the 30 metre length limit, since it stretches over most of Site 1. If you look closely at the ground floor plan, you will see the central box that contains the interior spaces, and that the extending shapes outside are intended to continue the roof to the ground and create the entrance courtyard and the rear sculpture courtyard. These shapes do not form the interior. I have kept the gallery itself, or the lockable space from front door to rear door, at 30m in length.
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research + inspiration

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Below are some buildings that were particularly influential on my gallery design.
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Grounds, Romberg & Boyd, Architects. Australian Academy of Science Headquarters, ACT, Australia. From 1950.
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As a curving, spherical design, the Academy of Science building seems a little incongruous to my intention. It is perfectly engineered rather than organic. It has even been called an alien saucer! However, I feel it is very subtle and, rather than overpowering its environment, integrates itself in. The roof and its opaque, earthy colouration feels as if it belongs to its environment.
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Snohetta arkitektur landskap AS. Oslo Opera House, Oslo, Norway. 2003-07.
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The Oslo Opera House is much more of a statement than the Academy of Science building. It epitomises the idea of a built topography, with roofs becoming ground and visitors able to walk up the whole building! The ground even continues into the water - indeed, its design was intended to evoke two glaciers merging.
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Further, the building at night also reflects what I intend for my gallery at night. Its glass walls glow from the light within, creating a different experience at night.
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SANAA Ltd - Architram. Rolex Learning Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland. 2010.
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SANAA's Rolex Learning Centre is like the Academy of Science building, utilising curves as the primary design element. However, it merges a variety of curves and gradients together to create a truly topographical, landscape-like experience. One interior space is contained by two concrete sheets that rise and fall, as if they sprung from the ground itself.
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art + artists to display

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Shown here are examples of the contemporary Australian Aboriginal art that the gallery will display and deal in. The open spaces allow for an assortment of artistic mediums, including painting, sculpture and carvings (particularly in the outdoor courtyard), and installations.
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Arone Meeks, Bush Spirit.
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Arone Meeks, Cassowary Dream.

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Judy Watson, Red Rock.

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Mickey Durnng, Pole.

design idea

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Looking around Newtown, I noticed a very curious intermingling of ideas, architecture and culture. Newtown society is eclectic and forward-thinking, yet it is housed within ageing Neo-classical and Federation shop fronts and terrace houses. The streets and buildings are very much solid and ad-hoc, seeming to expand to accommodate the people, while behind Site 1 there is a very peaceful and underused park, contrasting the man-made with the natural. And I also noticed a struggle for expression from the Aboriginal community - a large painted wall calls for equality with an Aboriginal flag and Martin Luther King, eye-catching and powerful, but somehow overpowered amongst the sea of shops and traffic. These ideas all gelled to form my narrative. The part-Aboriginal art-dealer wishes to display Aboriginal art to bring together the modern world and the old world, and feels that Newtown and its contradictions is the perfect place to address these issues.
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Hopefully my architecture captures the art dealer's intentions. I have attempted to mould a topographic building which uses Site 1's length and position, flowing along the site and associating with the front and back entrances. This form is intended to feel somewhat organic and an extension of the ground and landscape. It recalls the rocky topography and monoliths that are important to Aboriginal culture, like Ayer's Rock/Uluru. However, the majority of the construction is concrete, steel and glass. These synthetic materials are arranged in a stepped pattern that rises and falls to create the rocky form - hence, uniting the modern and ancient worlds. This form flows between one end of the site to the other, bringing together the busier commercial entrance at King Street and the natural park at Lennox Street behind.
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The interior is one large space that is 'carved' out by the stepped roof. Instead of being divided into separate, self-contained storeys, it features two mezzanine-like levels, whose balconies always peer down the one space. The ground floor is open and for general display, the first floor features an office and workshop and more display areas, and the second floor features the dealer's apartment and kitchen. As the levels ascend, they decrease in size, appearing stepped like the roof, and ramps link each level so the spaces continuously rise and flow. The interior is always bathed in light by the glass panels in the roof, but these are frosted to protect the artworks from direct sunlight. This dominance of glass then allows for a reciprocal relationship with the outside world, as various colours and lights can be displayed through at night, reflecting the colour and creativity of the Aboriginal artworks within.
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narrative

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"A young art dealer, of Anglo-Australian and Aboriginal Australian heritage, wishes to reconcile the modern and the ancient, the artificial and the natural, and, most importantly, post-Colonial Australia and Indigenous Australia."

chosen site

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I have chosen to situate my art gallery in the boundaries of Site 1. Below is the existing building's King Street facade. The width of the lot is a little less than 11 metres, and the proposal is to be a maximum of 30 metres in length.
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The other sites had their benefits, but I was instantly drawn to Site 1. It is slender, and so presents a challenge, but its length and position provides great opportunities. A proposal on this site could associate strongly with the urban infrastructure, namely King Street or the open carpark at its side (in blue, below), or the park at the rear (in green) - or all of these.


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A view of the street frontage opposite Site 1:
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The church nearly directly opposite the site:
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A stitched-together panorama of the park and approach to the rear:



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The existing rear facade on Lennox Street:



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The existing carpark adjacent to the site:

site panoramas

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This project tasked us to design a dealer's art gallery, functioning as both a commercial and cultural centre, which also includes an apartment for the residing art dealer.
The gallery is to be located in Newtown, Sydney, and we are to choose one site from three available along the main road, King Street.
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Below, I have computer-'stitched' together a panorama of each site's existing King Street facade. Each is computer-assembled from individual photographs and provides a 'fisheye' 180-degree view. (Take note, there are some strange 'ghost' and repetition effects! You may see people and objects fade away or be duplicated, as a result of combining separate photographs.)
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SITE 1:
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SITE 2:
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SITE 3:
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