SANAA-Designed Expansion of Sydney’s Main Art Museum Opens

Architects & FirmsSANAA ✕ Image in modal.

Banners outside Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), one of Australia’s premier art museums, declare the institution’s democratic goals. They announce, “art for all” and advertise that entry is free of charge.

Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, of Pritzker Prize-winning SANAA, have taken this vision to heart with their expansion to AGNSW—a 180,000-square-foot stand-alone building, set to open to the public on December 3rd. Comprising a series of interlocking pavilions, the volumes fan down a site that slopes from the city’s Royal Botanic Garden toward its world-famous harbor. A generous use of glass and kite-like roofs supported on slender columns lend the ensemble a transparency and approachability that contrast sharply with the museum’s existing building, or more accurately, series of buildings—all of which sit behind an imposing neoclassical Sydney sandstone facade dating from the late 19th century.

The art gallery in Sydney's harbor.

Aerial view of the SANAA-designed art gallery in Sydney's harbor. Photo © Iwan Baan

Tokyo-based SANAA, paired with the Australian practice Architectus, was selected in 2015 in an invited competition to design the new expansion. Their scheme negotiates what AGNSW director Michael Brand calls “an extraordinary site but a complex one.” Not only did the designers need to work with the steep terrain, they also had to contend with a freeway built in the 1950s that sliced through the site. Though a subsequently constructed land bridge united the two halves, the platform’s limited bearing capacity meant that any solution had to touch down lightly. The presence of two subterranean WWII-era concrete fuel bunkers offered similar structural challenges. “The expansion is partly on virgin ground, partly on the land bridge, and partly on the bunkers,” says Andrew Johnson, a principal at Arup, the project’s structural engineer.

The expansion’s assemblage includes a plaza linking old and new under a canopy of wave-like curved glass and the cascading boxes. These are defined not only by glazing, but also by walls of Portuguese limestone and of rammed earth. The volumes create terraced public areas—both indoors and out—while nearly doubling the museum’s exhibition space. The new galleries showcase AGSNW’s international contemporary collection but give pride of place to the holdings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. These galleries, named Yiribana (“this way” in the Aboriginal language of Sydney), have been moved from a basement in the old building to a highly visible location directly adjacent to the new building’s entrance.

The Tank art space.

The Tank space in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter

The expansion is not completely new construction, however. One of the most striking interior spaces is a 24,000-square-foot “Tank” gallery which has been adapted from one of the bunkers. The vast space, with walls still stained from the fuel it once held, is reached by descending a spiral stair. The architects said that it just made sense to incorporate it into the museum. “You can feel the history there,” says Nishizawa. For the Tank’s inaugural commission, Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas has interspersed monumental objects combining steel, resin, and organic materials among the gallery’s 125 existing concrete columns. The haunting installation is viewed in near darkness.

Passersby will be able to take in some of the art without even going inside the museum. For instance, a glass-enclosed “loggia” adjacent to the new plaza displays some of the Yiribana gallery’s contents. Currently on display there is a series of objects by sculptor Lorraine Connelly-Northey made of discarded sheet metal collected from the bush. And starting in mid-2023, people will be able to traverse the plaza on their way down to Woolloomooloo Bay, walking through a landscape created by Indigenous artist Jonathan Jones. His piece, which is now being installed, will showcase an Aboriginal practice that uses fire to manage the land and ecosystems.

The opening celebrations, which begin this weekend, will include nine days of art, music, and performances. Although the events are free, timed entry tickets are required. For more information, see AGNSW’s website.

The Tank art space.

Installation view of the Yiribana Gallery featuring (from left) Yukultji Napangati's Untitled (2005),
Doreen Reid Nakamarra's Untitled (2007), Bobby West Tjupurrula's Tingari sites around Kiwirrkura (2015),
and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa's Tingari fire dreaming at Wilkinkarra (2008), and (top) Yhonnie Scarce's
Death zephyr (2017). Photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Zan Wimberley


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Originally posted on: https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15957-sanaa-designed-expansion-of-sydneys-main-art-museum-opens