The last round of RAIA National Awards seemed to prove that innovative, welcoming and democratic public architecture in Australia is the preserve of two cities – and Sydney isn’t one of them. Brisbane’s selfconscious boosterism, its steady flow of southern state refugees, and its significant investment in public works and public art, has made it Melbourne’s nearest rival for cultural vibrancy. Two Brisbane buildings side-by-side took out RAIA public architecture prizes last year: Donovan Hill Peddle Thorp’s State Library of Queensland, and Architectus’ Gallery of Modern Art. Melbourne’s highly praised Southern Cross Station was also in contention in a field of candidates that represented, according to RAIA Jury Chair Carey Lyon, a “generational shift in the architecture profession”. Compared to New South Wales, where the jury last year awarded no public architecture bouquets – only commendations – Victoria and Queensland are doing a lot of things right.

GoMA was designed, ironically, by two of Architectus’ Sydney-based Directors, Lindsay and Kerry Clare, who moved from Queensland in the 1990s to extend their opportunities in teaching and designing. The 2002 international architect selection competition, to augment the existing Queensland Art Gallery with fifteen new gallery spaces and a Cinematheque, was not only an opportunity to work again in their home state. The GoMA commission was to be a $100 million landmark project that would paint the way for Brisbane culture over the next decade and beyond.

The idea of Brisbane as part of the Asia-Pacific zone of circulation is strongly stated in the Architectus design, not only in the gallery’s form (an open pavilion hybridised with a Queenslander) and its east-facing entrance and vistas, but also its curatorial choices (following up the triumphant retrospective of American Andy Warhol with a major show of contemporary Chinese art). Regionally-minded, the gallery is also city-minded, its over-sailing blade roof allowing huge windows and observation decks, and sheltered areas outside its walls. It produces three distinct public spaces around its sides, and it steps back from the footprint permitted by the masterplan to give Kurilpa Park on its northern face more room and more presence. Grand, but also in the architect’s words “direct and unpretentious to reflect something of the informality of [Brisbane’s] culture”, the gallery references international style while achieving a level of openness almost unheard of in other galleries around the world.

Galleries, of course, require controlled conditions, which usually means blocking out sunlight and views. Architectus protected and defined its gallery spaces by wrapping them within an L-shaped circulation exoskeleton. While the galleries are fully light-controlled, the circulation is naturally lit through vast glazed walls. GoMA thereby always feels connected to the outside world.

A fifty metre spotted gum screen shades the glazed north-western wall by day and at night produces a veiled view of the workings of the gallery’s administration areas, lecture rooms, staff facilities and art conservation areas.

Light and temperature stability are largely managed by the gallery’s singular overhanging roof, which includes rotating fins on its cantilevered edges that follow the position of the sun. Designed to appear light and fine with a gentle upward curve, the roof cantilever is supported by 22 metrehigh steel columns that tie it against wind uplift. Wind tunnel analysis was required to test the roof for vibration. The roof also needed to withstand internal pressures, including a 24 metre span over the main gallery, and the hanging loads of art works and suspended walls. This necessitated the tight coordination of the structure and the ceilings and rigorous analysis of structural loads.

Beneath the roof, the interior displays small touches of structural brilliance to shape a large, flexible, and energised environment. While the edges of the plan are activated with observation decks, a café and restaurant and reception spaces, the interior is kept clean and open through vertical voids, as well as floor cavities, sliding walls and zinc-lined double-walls in which art can be stored. The finishes are detailed and expertly crafted.

The building’s shell – a four to five storey cubic form with large glazed faces – is lightweight, while founded on a thermally massive core, including polished concrete slabs. The stable thermal environment is enhanced by an efficient displacement ventilation system to condition only the occupied spaces, eliminating wasteful cooling of GoMA’s large volumes. It purges contaminants directly from the space rather than mixing and slowly diluting them. The return air of the displacement ventilation system is drawn back across the structure, acting as a passive heatrecovery device. The Brisbane River is used to reject heat from the airconditioning system, disposing of the need for cooling towers and reducing usage of water.

From the crowds it now attracts, it is clear Architectus have achieved their desire to create an accessible cultural site that “returns enclosed public space to the people”; in doing so, they have lifted Brisbane into a new cultural league. +

Sydney Project Team
Adrian Esdaile, Ali Johnston, Alison Brookbanks, Aurelio Marano, Barbara Flynn, Belinda Pajkovic, Blair Johnston, Britta Siggelkow, Christine McLennan, Darrin Rodrigues, Deirdre Coffey, Felix Winter, Geoffrey Way, James Jones, James Pilcher, Jason Jondreau, Jason Tsai, Jiang Bo Wang, John Jeffrey, John Norman, Kathy Kralj, Kerrie Campbell, Kerry Clare, Leonardo Arias Galarz, Lindsay Clare, Mark Curzon, Martin Chan, Michael Harris, Petrina Moore, Renee Clare, Richard McEwen, Richard Travis, Rodd Perey, Rosemarie Gidaro, Sandy Strazds, Sarah Blacker, Simon Zou, Stefan Van Moll, Stuart Murchison, Thilo Nuessgen, Valeria Buccheri, Vanessa Gribben.

Brisbane Project Team
John Grealy, George Saldais, Ian Thomas, Clark Ingram, Keith Allen, Allan Rielly, Michelle O’Leary, Ray Smith, Jon Percival, Michael Ray, Ashley Beckett, Chloe Comino, Peter Roy, Caleb Smith, Kirstin Tocker, Mark Medcalf, Clair Keleher, Liz Park.

PHOTOGRAPHY by Peter Hyatt, John Gollings