Crossing the Threshold
The renovated Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand
unites old and new, creating an irresistible urge to step inside.
Architects are finding it very difficult in today's
cultural landscape. The profession faces a three-way threat: a public that
apparently doesn't understand what architects do, developers who couldn't care
less what they do, and overbearing councils micromanaging every single aspect
of what they do. According to sources within the architectural profession, the
situation is much worse when architects work on municipal buildings, as
architects FIMT and Archimedia discovered with their Auckland Gallery makeover,
where a vast number of external pressures threatened the project, and with so
many bureaucratic difficulties it looked doomed to fail.
The major challenge of the gallery renovation
project was that it involved two parts. The first was to restore the heritage
building, dating back to 1888, which contained a network of small spaces,
refurbished so often it contained 17 different floor heights. The second was to
deliver a new extension that would not only double floor and exhibition space
but also attract new patrons, a total necessity. While the old building's
circulation was off-putting, so was something intangible yet just as powerful:
its atmosphere. For many, Auckland Art Gallery was just an old building that
served a limited range of patrons with highbrow interests, missing its chance
to engage with new audiences.
A 2003 survey of young people's impressions of the
gallery confirmed this opinion, sounding more like references to an abandoned
building. For the survey authors, "threshold fear"—where certain
groups are intimidated from entering certain spaces by their off-putting
atmosphere—was the institution's undoing, something no architect wants anything
to do with. For those young people, Auckland Art Gallery was
"undemocratic, dusty" and "cold—the epitome of threshold
fear." Also, 16% of the sample group had no idea where it even was,
despite being interviewed on the pavement right outside it. Clearly, the
gallery was fatally out of step at a time when New Zealand's national museum in
Wellington was successfully engaging broader audiences with contemporary
branding and marketing, interactive displays, and temporary events.
The decision to evolve the gallery was actually made
in 2000, although it took eight years for building to commence, as the
architects fought off heritage committees and conservationists trying to stop
them. The architects were not just dealing with a disillusioned public, but
also with precious timber and the parkland which surrounds the building.
Pushing the design through the Environment Court, the body which approves
renovations of this scale, alone took three years. During this time, the budget
blew out by several million dollars, the funding dried up, and the new wing had
to be completely redesigned. Even after the redesigns, the use of kauri timber,
with its significance to New Zealand's Maori people, stirred up political
debate. In the new building, the architects have used kauri to produce a canopy
with a curving interior roof supported by tapered steel columns, also clad in
kauri. The canopy represents a signature public face, its curvature filtering light
to the forecourt to the west and creating a visual echo of the canopy of
pohutukawa trees in Albert Park to the east. The park also has cultural
significance to Maori as it was the site of early settlements.
Another success is the refurbishment of the heritage
building, especially the Mackelvie Gallery, in disrepair after its
characteristic early twentieth-century Edwardian decoration had been stripped
out or walled away in previous renovations. Remarkably, the Mackelvie space has
been reconstructed from two old photos, although the problem of multiple floor
levels was so serious that scaffolding had to be erected at the highest level,
with work progressing downwards—the reverse of normal practice. When it was
over, a fascinating detail was retained: the lowest level visible under glass
embedded in the new floor, the building itself as artwork, while elsewhere
columns from the old gallery have been exposed in the walls of the new wing.
The connection is reinforced by sculptures from
Maori artist Arnold Wilson decorating the columns, while fellow artist Bernard
Makoare was a consultant, ensuring the gallery emphasized Maori beliefs. Still,
that didn't stop the conservationist Stephen King from accusing the architects
of 'throwing' kauri at a 'mediocre building' and of misappropriating the 'mana'
(spiritual energy) of the precious material (which is almost extinct:
harvesting of both petrified and swamp kauri has been likened to a gold rush).
However, the kauri that was used here was from the forest floor, and King's
misconceptions sum up the prejudice that surrounded the project.
Objections also came from the Auckland Regional
Council, worrying about the extension's impact on Albert Park, yet the
project's relationship with parkland is one of the most successful outcomes.
Impact is not only minimal, but it improves the park's social function. The
extension's enormous glass atrium opens up the building by directing the gaze
from street level to the parkland beyond, while inside, the new art space is
fronted along the east by a continuous glass wall incorporating the park into
the gallery. The glass becomes a "screen" for viewing the outside
world and makes the art accessible to those in the park, a far cry from both
"white cube" galleries worldwide, the plain boxes where paintings are
hung in antiseptic walls, and also the dusty, impermeable Auckland Gallery of
old.
In 2008, the gallery averaged just 190,000 visitors
annually. After reopening, it had 300,000 in five months. Cynics will chalk
that up to the novelty of the new, but the fact is the gallery is now an
alluring cultural space which is crawling with young people.
Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
- What is the writer's main
point in the first paragraph?
A. Criticism of architects by different groups is unfair.
B. The architectural profession is generally well respected.
C. The most difficult projects for architects are public buildings.
D. Failure to deliver buildings is a result of poor communication. - The Auckland Gallery
project was particularly difficult because
A. the existing building was old and parts of it had fallen down.
B. there was a high number of floors in the building.
C. it involved renovating the existing building and adding a new one.
D. it needed to satisfy the requirements of the existing patrons. - What disturbing
information did the architects find out from the survey of young people?
A. They did not visit the gallery because of the way it made them feel.
B. They thought that the gallery buildings were not in use.
C. The gallery had the reputation of being dirty.
D. They did not like the entrance. - What point is the
writer making when he says that 16% of the sample group did not know where
the museum was?
A. Young people are not interested in galleries.
B. The gallery was not reaching out to involve young people.
C. The entrance to the gallery was not well signposted.
D. The location of the gallery was difficult to access. - Maori artists were
used on this project to
A. satisfy the concerns of conservationists.
B. protect sacred materials in the Albert Park site.
C. make sure the gallery respects Maori culture.
D. ensure that certain sources of kauri were not used.
Questions 32-36
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading
Passage 3?
In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
- Before the renovation,
the Auckland Art Gallery was regarded as an elitist institution.
- Stephen King's
intervention in the project shows his understanding of the architects' use
of kauri.
- The way the building
interacts with its surroundings is a triumph.
- The glass flooring in
the Mackelvie Gallery which reveals old features
- The design of the
extension to the Auckland Art Gallery is similar to the design of white
cube galleries in other parts of the world.
Questions 37-40
Complete each sentence with the correct ending. A-F, below.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
- The destruction of
Edwardian ornamentation
- It is extraordinary
that a limited number of photographs
- The problem of having
so many floor levels to deal with
- The glass flooring in
the Mackelvie Gallery which reveals old features
A. resulted in work being done in the opposite
direction to that usually followed.
B. is more than cosmetic and has improved the circulation.
C. was the clue to rebuilding the Mackelvie Gallery successfully.
D. has resulted in the building itself becoming a work of art.
E. means that you should be able to tell whether you are in the old wing or the
new one.
F. was the result of earlier attempts to modernise the building.
- C
- D
- A
- B
- C
- no
- no
- yes
- ng
- no
- f
- c
- a
- e
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