Delightful Innovation – ANZ Centre Gallery by Foolscap Studio

Level 10 of ANZ Docklands in Melbourne seems an unlikely place for an art gallery. And yet the ANZ Centre Gallery by Foolscap Studio defies expectations and delights all who enter. The gallery serves as a place to display the company’s art collection and a site for cultural events and experiences. Perhaps most innovatively though, it aims to transport visitors, the ANZ team and clients away from the workplace.

This intention to transport is clear from the outset, with a gently lit hallway that is clad floor-to-ceiling in a buttery timber so it reads as a portal between the clean, crisp, corporate world and a place of infinite possibility. The timber has a softening effect, which continues with the graceful drape of a curtain that cleverly conceals a concrete column. The drapery is illuminated from above by a skylight and in such a way that looks like it might ‘beam you up’ to outer space if you venture too close. Here, an ordinary feature of the office building is transformed into a study of light, shadow, texture and gravity, signalling that this space is beyond empty gestures.

Here, an ordinary feature of the office building is transformed into a study of light, shadow, texture and gravity, signalling that this space is beyond empty gestures.

Deep large-scale timber window seats act as another form of portal, this time from the inside the gallery looking out into the massive void of the building. These seats provide perspective, distance and solitude, both literally and figuratively. The scale from this vantage gives the building a doll’s-house-like quality, an unexpected juxtaposition against the corporate workspaces on display.

A concierge desk-cum-dry-bar is made from travertine aggregate, saved from the demolition of the spaces’ former fit-out. This aggregate also tops neat, round bar tables throughout the gallery, adding texture and meeting a practical need without distracting from the art on display.

The drapery is illuminated from above by a skylight and in such a way that looks like it might ‘beam you up’ to outer space if you venture too close.

Track lighting and spacious white walls perform the necessary duties of a gallery space, paying respect to, and leaving breathing space for, each work of art. Coloured lights, however, in disco tones of aqua, pink and yellow, are an option. These lights playfully recast the space from one of professionalism and reverence into one of wonder and fun. This change has a transformative, other-worldly effect, one which resonates with each work of art and the notion of viewing art in a gallery at large. It is an offer of another world, fresh ideas, new ways of experiencing, feeling, thinking, being.