Tri Art Gallery

Project Name: Tri Art Gallery
Authors: Open To Sky Architects

CITATION

Buildings have an association with urban memory. Our cities have a patina – layers of structures that negotiate the paradigms of heritage and modernity, of contrasts and coexistence. This art gallery deals with heritage and memory but resists the known template in favour of both newness and nostalgia. The architects reveal and celebrate the age of the old building through contrast, working with familiarity and the uncanny in equal measure.

The intervention is not restrained. Rather, it creates a careful tension where the new neither submits nor imposes. The selection of materials and the fine articulation of detail emphasise the contrast, taking the idea as far as possible within the rules set by the architects.

The intervention enhances the programme within the building. The choice of exposing the layers of the old weathering surface while concealing the walls where the gallery display is envisioned makes for an experience of encountering the new and radical in close proximity to the old – a future within the past. The design of the staircase organises the circulation and leads the visitor to the final act, where, on the terrace, a modern, light-filled public space is revealed.

The design of this gallery presents an approach where the new and the old are treated as partners. The project proposes a new way of looking at heritage, where the act of design is an act of reconciliation without timidity; an act of working with memory and newness simultaneously and unapologetically; with equal rigour and confidence to offer the possibility of manufacturing new connections and therefore, Tri Art Gallery by Open to Sky Architects is awarded a Citation in The Merit List.