Architecture & Structure of the Building

This new gallery building communicates the story and ingenuity of Heath Robinson and makes a place for community arts, activity and exhibitions. The NLHF-supported project builds on the success of the neighbouring West House community building and café, to provide, at last, a permanent home for the remarkable collection of Heath Robinson's original artwork.

The fully accessible building, including permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, Learning/Activity studio and archive space, was designed within a modest budget using an innovative cross-laminated timber (CLT) and latticed timber structure. It opens generously onto its popular Memorial Park setting, offering intriguing spaces to be used by the local and international visiting public.

The Museum’s form and positioning create a contemporary building that is open, inviting and architecturally memorable, recognisably but subtly communicating its Heath Robinson subject when approached from the park and particularly in the spatially and structurally ingenious interiors. The pitched roofs and brick cladding make reference to surrounding structures flanking the site.

The gallery spaces have angular forms making spaces that feel unconventionally and deceptively generous and again relate to the work and imaginative world of Heath Robinson. The finishes of the walls and floor are simple and expressive of their construction – concrete, timber and plaster – allowing the intriguing exposed timber structure of the ceilings to surprise the visitor. These have been designed in the spirit of Heath Robinson; at first glance they seem to defy logic, however, when examined closely one unravels how each piece of timber is doing its structural task and fits into an overall, highly logical system.

The building has a material and constructional honesty, making overt and covert reference to Heath Robinson’s work, opening the visitor’s mind to his unique approach to the assembled, material world his work inhabits as well as the practical making of things.

The Heath Robinson Gallery will be open showing his life story along with many of his original art works. The adjacent Joan Brinsmead Gallery will have a temporary exhibition.