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The University of Queensland
Building 11 University Drive, St Lucia
Brisbane
Queensland 4067
Australia
coordinates: -27.4965210 153.0121002

Building names(s): James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre

Architect/Designer: Wilson Architects
architect website:

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Last update: 26 March, 2010 | Suggested By LT

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1. on 26 Mar 2010 Australian Instute of Architects

   Mayne Hall was an award winning building designed by Robin Gibson in the 1970’s as a concert hall, and for ceremonial graduations. With the construction of a larger multipurpose facility this building was mostly redundant. Wilson Architects and Wilson Landscape Architects were commissioned to convert this building into an art museum whilst retaining the original envelope, the organ, and the stained glass window. The art museum was essentially a building within a building. This strategy was employed to allow the original volume of the hall to be ‘read’. Lightweight bridges connect the new mezzanine to the ground plane. A feature of this development is that pedestrians walking past the building will be able to see the collection and those visitors within the gallery can enjoy the views of the stone facade of the Forgan Smaith Building. The conceptual starting point for the project was to appreciate the core ‘bones’ and logic of the existing fabric so as to reinvigorate and re-orientate one’s experience of the building with the careful insertion of new spaces and uses. A bold timber clad form is inserted into the existing volume creating tension around the edges of the hall that greatly enhance the appreciation of Gibson’s use of natural light. The inserted two storey timber clad ‘pod’ which houses the gallery space was conceived as a dynamic fluid counterpoint to the rigid geometry of the existing building. This created the opportunity for dynamic spatial changes while moving through the gallery and utilisation of views out of the building, allowing the visitor to frequently re-orientate themselves within the broader landscape.