National Gallery and Eurostar bring art to St Pancras

An interactive digital art gallery for rail travellers is launching today at the new St Pancras International station in London.


An interactive digital art gallery for rail travellers is launching today at the new St Pancras International station in London.


The design work for the project has been handled by Land Design Studio, with software developed by Studio Simple.


Unveiled by Eurostar and the National Gallery and entitled Station Masters it gives people in the Eurostar departure lounge access to works of art.


Land Design created the interiors of the lounge and included the gallery as a feature which project designer Ross Hopcraft says, ‘fulfills the brief of keeping passengers in this section, who cannot access the retail outlets on the other side, entertained’.


He continues, ‘The inspiration came when someone mentioned that having art on the walls would improve the travel experience, and we took the idea of a graphic and applied the touch-screen technology concept to it.’


Users can explore a database of 100 images from the National Gallery’s collection of Western European painting. The images are arranged into eight themes, which include Love, Passion, Peace and Time.


The gallery will display work by Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, Michelangelo Caravaggio, John Constable, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.


The public can choose which painting they want to view by taking a seat at one of six touch-screen coffee tables.


After searching the database the picture they select is displayed on one of six free-standing plasma screens situated within the brick archways that run along the eastern wall of the departure lounge, creating an evolving art gallery for visitors in the station.


Station Masters includes several interactive tools that allow users to explore the paintings in more depth.


People can zoom in on a chosen picture to discover hidden details and artistic secrets that are impossible to see in a conventional gallery setting.


Land Design was appointed in February 2006 after taking part in a competitive five-way pitch.


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