Digging in the library archives

Many thanks to the Gallery who have made their library archives on the building available for study. I am every so grateful.

Following are some potentially useful findings for a generative model that come from a design report that was submitted sometime before construction.

Design Report

There are 'access fingers' that extend into the immediate environment to 'gather up the visitors' before a single point of entry for security control and orientation - ie primarily the bridge to the High Court and intended National Place and Parliament and the grand stairs to the lake, driveway drop-off and carpark below, but also the internal escalators that paralleled the stairs and the ramp to the south.

The foyer extends the National Place and provides as much as possible direct access to all galleries. 40% of galleries are on the entrance level. There is a variety of potential circuits so that visitors can preselect galleries of special interest.

In total there is 64,913 sq ft of gallery space. 11 galleries, each with individual identity and proportions (plan dimension and height). A third of the galleries are divided into small intimate spaces.

'Smoking lounges' with views are strategically located to combat visitor fatigue. The visitor lounge off Gallery 6, above the restaurant, is a halfway rest point.

Gallery 1 has higher illumination and was intended for new acquisitions.

Gallery 11 and Gallery 3 were intended for temporary exhibitions and have access to service lifts.

Gallery 11 being close to the kitchen was intended to double for functions, and so allows for evening access along with the theatre and restaurant, while access can be restricted to other galleries.

The restaurant is close to the garden.

There is a variety of top, side and artificial lighting.

There are long, unbroken walls without windows or switches etc (this was a suggestion from James Sweeny).

Satellite Galleries

Sweeny's suggestion that the Gallery be kept small was progressed somewhat. I found sketch design work that the Gallery or the National Capital Development Commission must have commissioned from Madigan's firm EMTB to explore a proposed satellite gallery in Belconnen Town Centre that could house entire collections and departments (eg prints) and was apparently intended to part of the urban fabric of daily life being adjacent/connected to the library and shopping mall. The architecture could have been a sister architecture to the Gallery as the High Court or EMTB's Parliament House design is. It did not share the the triangular geometry which was unique to that particular identity/context.