Architecture
The building comprises three sections, the boiler house, switch house and the turbine room. Apart from the partial demolition of the Boiler Room in 1984 almost the whole building remained intact. The building was constructed in stages, externally from load bearing masonry. Through a programme of land exchange in 1989 the Brisbane City Council was able to re-acquire the building. The adaptation potential to reuse the existing structures without detracting from the cultural significance was recognized and architect Peter Roy was commissioned to create an arts venue from the site. Roy and his team made adjustments such as removed parts of walls, replaced the Turbine Hall roof that had deteriorated and created more defined interior spaces generating another evident phase in the Powerhouse’s history. Original elements such as materials from the eastern wall that was heavily damaged were utilized in other parts of the building. A gantry crane and switch from its power station days and graffiti remain intact.
The refurbished building was opened in May 2000 with additions that appropriate the 1920s building with today’s culture.
Read more about this topic: Brisbane Powerhouse
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)