The Blue Carpet is a piece of Public Art

Public art

The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...

 in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, designed by Thomas Heatherwick

Thomas Heatherwick

Thomas Heatherwick is an English designer known for innovative use of engineering and materials in public monuments and sculptures...

. Although classified as a piece of public art, it is closer to an urban design feature. The piece occupies a public open space

Public open space

Public Open Space is often referred to by urban planners and landscape architects by the acronym 'POS'. It has a meaning similar to public park, but varied interpretations of the term are possible.'Public' can mean:...

 in front of the Laing Art Gallery

Laing Art Gallery

The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England is located on New Bridge Street. It was opened in 1904 and is now managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In front of the gallery is the Blue Carpet.The gallery holds oil paintings,...

, close to the main shopping and nightclub areas.

Artwork

The 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.

Setting

Completed in 2001, the piece took six years to realise. Following the success of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North

Angel of the North

The Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture, designed by Antony Gormley, which is located in Gateshead,formerly County Durham, England.It is a steel sculpture of an angel, standing tall, with wings measuring across...

 in nearby Gateshead

Gateshead

Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...

, 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

Laing Art Gallery

The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England is located on New Bridge Street. It was opened in 1904 and is now managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In front of the gallery is the Blue Carpet.The gallery holds oil paintings,...

, 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.

The Blue Carpet was intended to complement the existing buildings and give the city a contemporary icon. 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.

Current status

The Blue Carpet has become the subject of some local debate, as parts of it are used as ramps by skateboarders. The tiles have also rapidly faded to a blue-grey colour, a fact that is made more obvious when damaged tiles are replaced with those of the original colour. The upturned benches have also become a regular target for vandals and are often fenced off while awaiting repair.