Architects
Sydney-based company Architectus was commissioned by the Queensland Government in July 2002 to design the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA).
Their appointment followed the two-stage Architect Selection Competition, which was advertised internationally and endorsed by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Five architectural teams were short-listed.
Architectus was established in 2000, just prior to its participation in the GoMA Architect Selection Competition.
The Architectus team includes Lindsay and Kerry Clare, who were Design Directors within the New South Wales Government Architect's Office for two years in the lead up to the Sydney Olympics. The Clares had run a successful partnership at Mooloolaba, north of Brisbane since 1979, integrating Queensland climatic sensibility into a highly practical, elegant and modern 'Sunshine Coast style'.
Consortium partners Davenport Campbell formally joined the Architectus group as Architectus Brisbane in late 2003.
Architects' statement
A main theme of the design by Architectus is a pavilion in the landscape, one which assumes its position as both hub and anchor for this important civic precinct.
The new Gallery building comprises an urban pavilion that responds through its form, materials and disposition to its location, climate, site and use. The Gallery is a frame within which to collect, preserve and exhibit art, which simultaneously marks the edge and entrance to a public platform from which to view the city and the river.
Critical to this is the building's response to the site, its natural topography, existing patterns of urban generation and the river.
The existing precinct is characterised by buildings that are oriented parallel with the Brisbane River, and the overall arrangement is linear. The new Gallery building is a pavilion placed perpendicular to the Brisbane River, thereby completely reconfiguring the built environment. The Gallery's placement is both a logical and intuitive response to the intrinsic nature and contour of the curving river site. Through its orientation, the building literally faces and appears to exist in dialogue with the rest of the city.
By adopting the pavilion form, the architects create a design of habitable zones drawn from vernacular experience, not unlike the concept of a community 'longhouse'.
The close relationship of the Gallery building with the surrounding public space builds into the experience multiple opportunities for leisure. The building literally opens onto these spaces through its use of glass, 'public living rooms', and open verandahs.
A sheltering envelope wraps the principal functions of the building - the preparation, presentation and interpretation of works of art. The accommodation for these activities informs the surrounding zones of public circulation.
The Gallery building, through its transparency, a long, linear, connective spine, and a series of expansive, open verandahs, becomes one with the public space in which it is situated. It is a gallery building utilising walls for the presentation and protection of art (black box) without losing its transparency, readability, and openness to the city and the surrounding landscape (light box). The duality of the design approach is that the architecture is impressive and monumental without losing its openness and freshness, and without being intimidating; international yet responsive to local conditions and the south-east Queensland context.
By adopting this approach the architects propose to realise one of the Gallery's most important aims - to place the institution in the public experience of the city.
The role of an art gallery is to make a place for people to connect with art in all its facets. An art gallery is a public building. Its significance for the public consciousness is characterised by the fact that it returns enclosed public space to the city.
The principal galleries are simple and clearly oriented to support the Gallery's core programs.
Planning for the new exhibition spaces is highly flexible and practical. Overall, the new Gallery comprises a combination of generous enclosed spaces for exhibiting the permanent collections, interconnected with a hierarchy of gallery types for temporary exhibitions.
(Architectus + Davenport Campbell, Executive Summary for the Stage 2 Submission in the Architect Selection Competition)
