Location:
Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre, Riversdale, NSW
Brief:
To design a multifunctional gallery to support the current Boyd art collection and to facilitate visiting exhibitions while also providing office facilities, supporting amenities for existing staff and a public reception area. A review of existing heritage buildings and to propose a consolidation of usage was also required, as with public amenities and revised parking for buses and cars.
The challenges were to resolve the conflicting requirements of this new gallery to respect the character of its context and purpose, with practical issues of access for pedestrians and vehicle circulation and servicing. The new building needed to be located in a way to avoid visual conflict with the existing heritage cottage buildings and the Boyd Education Centre, as viewed on the hillside from approach to the site. Siting also needed to consider daylight access, solar control, wind protection, drainage and integrated strategies to mitigate bushfire threat.
Concept:
Following on from an in-depth understanding of site and its many unique characteristics informed what became an experiential pathway through the landscape and within that experience gain and understanding of the environment, through concealing and revealing connections to the room 'that is the valley that floods', the two waterways that meet and to the mountain that features so richly in Boyd's work.
The flooded valley which is a withdrawn room in the greater landscape and in that way acts as a refuge to see out to gain prospect.
