Burnie Gateway Design  | November 24, 2023 | The Advocate - video Dailymotion

Geoff Farquhar-Still discusses 'Welcome Gesture', the preferred Burnie Gateway Project design. Video by Burnie City Council

Transcript

00:00 [Music plays]

00:10 Bernie has an epic landscape.

00:13 When you arrive in the city, you pass avenues of trees, remnants of industry,

00:18 huge piles of timber, huge piles of wood chips,

00:22 and the massive ocean and the sunlight pouring through.

00:25 What we've tried to do upon arrival in the city is provide a gateway

00:29 that talks to that landscape.

00:31 Welcome gesture is based on the idea of a welcoming gesture.

00:35 The form itself is drawn directly from the sweep of a human hand.

00:39 It's an inviting gesture and one that draws you into the city.

00:42 What we were hoping to make was a cinematic experience.

00:45 As you pass through all of the huge finches and vast landscape

00:49 as you come into Bernie, that you enter the site

00:52 and the sculpture itself is set against that backdrop.

00:55 The best way to see it is at speed.

00:58 Moving past and seeing the forms move past one another,

01:02 flickering as you pass.

01:05 The night-time experience of welcome gesture will be iconic.

01:10 Simple gestural lighting at the base of the columns

01:12 will illuminate the way it touches the landscape.

01:15 The fingers themselves will reach up into the port-like sky,

01:19 blip orange at night, and as you move past the sculpture

01:22 you will see the landscape pivot around it.

01:25 The journey from the entrance to the site

01:28 through to this intimate seating location

01:31 will be a meandering path through a native landscape

01:34 dotted with elements, fragments of the larger sculpture

01:37 which have then been converted into opportunities

01:40 for displaying the history of Bernie,

01:43 opportunities for expressions from the community,

01:47 stories about their past, stories about their present

01:49 and even hopes for the future.

01:53 The intent is that we don't just deliver a gateway for Bernie,

01:56 just a sculpture dropped in a spot,

01:58 that we deliver a new place, a new landscape for Bernie,

02:01 a new park and somewhere for the community to come and join and share.

02:05 [Music plays]

02:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]