The Victorian Government and the National Gallery of Victoria have launched a design competition to select an Australian architectural team to design the new purpose-built, twenty-first century gallery, NGV Contemporary.
Located at 77 Southbank Boulevard, Melbourne, the new gallery will be dedicated to showcasing contemporary art, design, fashion and architecture of local, national and international significance in the heart of the now-transformed Melbourne Arts Precinct.
In what has been described a as an “unprecedented move for a competition of this scale and civic profile”, eligibility to enter the competition is open exclusively to Australian architectural teams, offering an unparalleled platform to showcase Australia’s world-leading design and architecture industries. Once completed, the gallery will span 30,000 square metres, making it the largest public gallery of contemporary art and design in Australia.
The design for the new gallery must consider the function and flexibility required in order to display a diverse range of contemporary art and design; the visitor experience and how they will encounter the works on display as they navigate the building; and the gallery’s connection to the wider community, including the Melbourne Arts Precinct, the Southbank neighbourhood and the wider city.
NGV Contemporary will connect to the Southbank neighbourhood and St Kilda Road through an expansive 18,000 square metres of new elevated public gardens. In turn, the NGV Contemporary Design Competition presents an extraordinary city-changing opportunity to envision the ways in which NGV Contemporary will connect architecturally to the wider Melbourne Arts Precinct and unite Melbourne’s creative heart, joining north to south, and reimagining the very fabric of the city.
According to the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, “NGV Contemporary will be an Australian-designed global icon. In its design, construction, operations, exhibitions and programs, the gallery will create thousands of local jobs and boost our economic recovery.”
Image: Supplied
