HOTA, Home of the Arts Gallery

Home of the Arts (Hota) Gallery is the centrepiece of the Gold Coast's cultural precinct and is the result of an international design competition awarded to ARM Architecture in 2014.
Considered Australia's largest art gallery outside a capital city, the HOTA Gallery has over 2,000 square metres of exhibition space on six levels, allowing it to host international touring and smaller temporary exhibitions. It also has a children's gallery and a rooftop bar overlooking Surfers Paradise.

In the architects' thinking, HOTA is a place where you come as you are a place to see a Warhol wearing your board shorts, a place to go for a swim, enjoy the great outdoors and then lose yourself in cultural discovery. It is a destination that can only exist in this unique city and an experience created specifically for its engaging and dynamic culture.

The design for both the interior and exterior lighting was developed by Electrolight who worked closely with ARM Architecture. The lighting design aimed to create an interesting and inviting visual environment as well as highlighting the textures and materiality of the rooms. The key was an innovative and dynamic lighting treatment, yet respectful and integrated with the architecture and urban design. Highly innovative luminaires and control systems were also chosen, capable of being upgraded for future developments, and able to work with current and future international exhibition requirements. 

A track-mounted lighting system controlled by Casambi technology provided by iGuzzini was used for all gallery spaces, offering extreme ease of use. The BLE  control system makes it possible to manage, without the need for additional electrical installations, the addressing of each individual luminaire, the hourly programming of the lighting, scenes based on the presence or absence of visitors in the various rooms, time display based on the conservation criteria of the artistic works and also dynamic dimming.

Nearly 400 View’s, OptiBeam projectors were used on the tracks, chosen for their discreet and minimalist aesthetics, providing general, diffuse lighting, supplemented in some cases by accent lighting.