The new gallery’s spaces have been created using Optiwhite® - a low-iron colourless glass - variously transparent, translucent, opaque, printed and lit with coloured light, and arranged to form a dynamic chasm down the length of the exhibition. This introductory walk leads the visitor to the ‘East Room’. This is where the exhibition begins in detail and where the visitor gently moves up to return at mid point in the chasm on a first bridge before discovering the rest of the exhibition.
Crossing the chasm are four gently cambered steel bridges, some inclined, some horizontal, seemingly suspended from the fragile glass walls. The bridge surfaces of recycled rubber tyres, wood, metal and finally glass, allude to man’s history in processing of raw materials. The bridges connect the different themes of the exhibition, and the generously curved deck of each bridge is a pause in space offering a glimpse of man in his surroundings and also act as guides to progress through the exhibition.
The glass walls of low-iron glass are the world’s first application of structurally bonded glass in a public building.
The exhibition opened in April 1991 and is projected to run ten years. During this time single parts or sections of the exhibition can change without adversely effecting the concept.