Blue Carpet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Blue Carpet is a piece of Public Art in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. Although classified as a piece of public art, it is closer to an urban design feature. The piece occupies an open public space in front of the Laing Art Gallery, close to the main shopping and nightclub areas. The square has been covered in a skin of blue paving slabs. 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 sunk glass topped boxes which hold coloured lights. At the eastern end an established staircase leading to an elevated walkway is encased in a curving skin of wood ribbons.

Completed in 2001, the piece took six years to realise. Following the success of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North in nearby Gateshead, Newcastle and other neighbouring authorities were keen to realise other high profile public art commissions. Heatherwick's design provided a sensible solution that would complement the existing buildings and give the city a contemporary icon. The Blue Carpet's tiles are made of a new material using recycled bottle glass set in a resin medium. Unfortunately, the first batch of tiles delivered were green rather than blue and the whole project was set back several months. When finally unveiled it was remarked that the carpet was much paler in colour than was expected from Heatherwick's original visualisations.

The Blue Carpet has become the subject of some local complaint, as parts of it are used as ramps by skateboarders who have caused damage to the listed buildings it adjoins.