About Blue Carpet
The Blue Carpet is a piece of Public Art in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. It is an area of public open space in front of the Laing Art Gallery, close to the main shopping and nightclub areas, paved with glass-and-resin slabs which curve up at the space's edges, giving the appearance of a fabric carpet. Although classified as a piece of public art, it is closer to an urban design feature. ArtworkThe square has been covered in a skin of blue paving slabs, made by mixing crushed blue glass with resin. At the points where this skin reaches a building the slabs curve upwards to create the sensation that the tiles are a fabric laid over the area. There are a number of benches that appear to fold up from the carpet surface, and beneath the benches are sunken glass-topped boxes that hold coloured lights. At the eastern end an existing staircase, leading to an elevated walkway, was replaced with a new one, featuring a curving skin of wood ribbons, constructed by a local boatbuilder. SettingCompleted in 2001, the piece took six years to realise. The total budget for the space was £1. 4m. The work was partially funded by the Arts Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. Following the success of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North in nearby Gateshead, Newcastle and other neighbouring authorities were keen to invest in other high profile public art commissions. Heatherwick's design provided was an integral part of a project to improve the streetscape and context of the Laing Art Gallery, which was left marooned following the demolition of the old Victorian library in the 1960s, with a blank brick wall facing towards the city centre.
Blue Carpet Description
The Blue Carpet is a piece of Public Art in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. It is an area of public open space in front of the Laing Art Gallery, close to the main shopping and nightclub areas, paved with glass-and-resin slabs which curve up at the space's edges, giving the appearance of a fabric carpet. Although classified as a piece of public art, it is closer to an urban design feature. ArtworkThe square has been covered in a skin of blue paving slabs, made by mixing crushed blue glass with resin. At the points where this skin reaches a building the slabs curve upwards to create the sensation that the tiles are a fabric laid over the area. There are a number of benches that appear to fold up from the carpet surface, and beneath the benches are sunken glass-topped boxes that hold coloured lights. At the eastern end an existing staircase, leading to an elevated walkway, was replaced with a new one, featuring a curving skin of wood ribbons, constructed by a local boatbuilder. SettingCompleted in 2001, the piece took six years to realise. The total budget for the space was £1. 4m. The work was partially funded by the Arts Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. Following the success of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North in nearby Gateshead, Newcastle and other neighbouring authorities were keen to invest in other high profile public art commissions. Heatherwick's design provided was an integral part of a project to improve the streetscape and context of the Laing Art Gallery, which was left marooned following the demolition of the old Victorian library in the 1960s, with a blank brick wall facing towards the city centre.