The new Biodiversity Gallery at the South Australian Museum was opened to the public on 12 February 2010 to wide acclaim. "The biodiversity of South Australia's oceans, deserts and forests is truly exceptional. The South Australian Museum's Biodiversity Gallery celebrates and helps conserve this wonderful asset." - Sir David Attenborough. Located on the second floor of the Museum's east wing the gallery showcases South Australia’s rich biodiversity and diverse wildlife across four geographical zones - arid, temperate, coastal and marine/tidal. The gallery utilises a variety of media to display the vast information illustrating this biodiversity. These include: touch screen resource libraries, film clips, electronic labelling, interactive specimen drawers containing some of the museum's extensive collections, and vibrant displays. This is designed to make the gallery visually and mentally stimulating for visitors of all ages. Grieve Gillett was the Lead Professional Services Contractor for the project, providing full Architectural services, heritage advice and coordinating the extensive team. As well as services, building surveyors and structural consultants the team included an array of specialists: • Exhibition Designers Mothers Art Productions from Melbourne - responsible for overall exhibition design and showcase documentation. • The South Australian Museum scientists and exhibition specialists - responsible for specimen preparation, interpretive information, exhibit layout and construction. • Lighting Designers Bluebottle - an integral member of the team providing specialist advice from the outset and documentation and installation at later stages. • Managing Contractor Hansen Yuncken - in addition to sensitively managing the base building works also coordinated joinery installation, input from specialist fabricators not directly under their contract and installation of specialist equipment. • Audio Visual consultants: S-Tek - provided technical advice to realise audio visual design intent. • Graphic Designers: Ography and Prue Marks - design and documentation of graphics as informed by both Mothers Art and the SA Museum team. • Specialist Joiner: ADS Solutions (Melbourne) - conducted a constructability review of the joinery design followed by specialist fabrication and installation. • Showcase Construction: Click (Melbourne) - completed a constructability review of the showcases followed by construction, delivery and installation process. • Specialist Fabricator: SPUD - provided design development and fabrication of complicated specialist items.
The coordination and hard work of all the parties above has led to the gallery's successful outcome. This collaborative approach was instigated from the inception of the project and carefully managed by Grieve Gillett through to completion. Care was taken to meld the design intent of all parties to create an environment that expressed the framework and objectives of the Museum. Particular attention was paid to balancing the scientific and experiential aspects of the exhibition. The specialist nature of the works and the number of organisations involved in realising the project made financial management a key parameter for a successful outcome. A number of value management sessions were undertaken to balance the Museum’s desire to maximise objects within the exhibits while achieving aesthetic and experiential aspects of the design, providing the required level of environmental control and meeting the budget.
