Sydney, Australia
Article by Sharon McHugh
Architectus and SANAA’s much-anticipated expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales—The Sydney Modern Project— is the most significant cultural development in the city since the Sydney Opera House.
The project doubles the exhibition space and creates new galleries and outdoor experiences across an 84-acre parkland overlooking Sydney Harbor.
The transformation provides a new building for 21st-century art to the north of the Art Gallery’s newly refreshed historic building. The two are connected by a new public art garden and civic space that spans a freeway and reconnects the museum to the adjacent Royal Botanic Garden, forming an expanded arts campus.
The architects have proposed a series of ethereal pavilions that cascade down the harbor for the building.
The pavilions sit low and lightly on the land and offer an ecologically sensitive solution to building on the heritage site.
The new gallery is clad in warm-hued limestone with rammed earth interior walls that complement the sandstone facade of the existing building and the surrounding nature. Exhibition spaces are provided on all levels.
Chief among these is a dedicated gallery for Aboriginal and Torre Islander Art at the entrance and a vast, 23,580-square-foot underground art space with 23-foot-high ceilings for special commissions and performances that were created from a decommissioned World War II naval oil tank.
Joining these spaces are a major exhibition gallery, a large, column-free gallery, and a range of smaller galleries, education, research, and multipurpose spaces. Rooftop terraces and social spaces for eating and gathering are provided throughout.
Sydney Modern Project transforms one of Australia’s preeminent art museums with a measured mix of restraint and forward-looking thinking about art museums and the visitor experience.
Project: Sydney Modern Project
Architects: Architectus
Lead Architect: SANAA
Client: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Images: SANAA
