Craig Downie

Description

Completed in 1994, the Gallery is a steel, timber and glass pavilion that serves to greet and orientate visitors. Placed in the woods to one side of the entrance track, it is designed for functionality yet also discretion, to have a dialogue with and yet remain concealed in the woodland landscape.

Restrained and simplistic, the colours and materials used have been specifically chosen to blend into nature over time, and the lines of the building have been designed to lie in harmony with lines of the surrounding tree trunks.

Inside, the space is constructed of closed and open planes; solid wood walls and uninterrupted glass expanses. The dramatic views of the stunning woodland surroundings are thus both concealed then revealed to the visitor by the dual nature of the construction.

The only extravagance is a turquoise copper wall running along the side of the pavilion. This splash of colour helps to focalise the gallery in the estate, as a vital fixed point on the sculpture trail.