The INVENTory

Kuuki (Priscilla Bracks and Gavin Sade) worked with designer Jess Lenton to create an all-ages activity space for the Queensland Museum called the Invent-ory . The design compliments the Museum’s collections and research interests in bio-diversity, geo-science and cultural history. Its flexible design allows the Museum to host workshops, functions, and lectures.

Our brief required a reconfigurable space created from reclaimed and recyclable materials. We used existing materials wherever possible. The Queensland Museum has a mind-boggling store of materials left over from previous exhibition. We sifted through their warehouse storage facility at Hendra finding treasures such as diorama boxes used in the 1970’s for travelling education workshops in Queensland primary schools. These boxes became seating when combined with old display plinths and cushions upholstered from fabric exhibition banners.

Large quantities of silver light reflectors were converted into feature lights, and old tungsten bulbs were used to fill a feature light box in the storage shelves. Didactic panels from previous shows feature extensively in the shelves and workbenches. Other plywood in the shelves originally formed part of a theatre floor in the Queensland Art Gallery. All furniture, fittings and flooring is fixed without glues so that it can be disassembled for reuse or recycling.

Acoustics was also a major design issue. The space sits within a larger concrete atrium in the Museum. The atrium’s 10 metre high ceiling, concrete walls and tiled floor, create sound reflections that unaddressed would make workshops, functions and talks untenable. We sectioned off the space with shelves and incorporated highly absorbent acoustic materials on the ceiling and walls, to reduce sound reflections.