Architect's statement
The first major component of the Queensland Cultural Centre is the home for the Queensland Art Gallery; a home where the community can be involved and participate in that excitement which always abounds where man and the visual arts meet.
It is not only a place for the collection and exhibition of our art works, it is a place where the walls and barriers of the Gallery are broken down, where there is a constant source of interchange between the art world and the public― a living Gallery― a place of subtle and changing light values where the ultimate experience of the confrontation between the viewer and the art work can be realised.
To create this, walls have been placed to promote the flow or change the course of the viewer's itinerary so that, as one traverses the Gallery, spaces will reveal subtle variations to the display. A major orientation element of the design [is] a mall of water which traverses the public areas of the Gallery. Spaces have been ordered according to their function and relationship with the public along and across this mall.
The concept to create this vibrant working relationship between public and artist emerges as an architecture of spaces contained between walls, floors and ceilings of minimal colour content which flow and interlock internally and externally to create an environment for people which is fresh, original and vital.
Robin Gibson
Architect
(This text was published in What's On, Queensland Art Gallery vol.1, no.1, June 1982.)
