NEWS

An awe-inspiring and timeless design by a multidisciplinary team led by Australian architect Angelo Candalepas and Associates was today revealed by the Victorian Government and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as the winning design for NGV Contemporary, Australia’s largest gallery dedicated to contemporary art and design.

Candalepas and their team of 20 leading architecture, design and engineering firms from around Victoria and Australia will create a powerful and sophisticated work of contemporary Australian architecture for the people of Victoria. This new 30,000 square metre Victorian landmark will celebrate the central role of art and design in contemporary life and features dramatic arched entries, a spherical hall spanning more than 40-metres-high and more than 13,000 square metres of display space for art and design, including exhibition galleries and an expansive rooftop terrace and sculpture garden with stunning vistas of Melbourne. 

The arrival experience is focused around the visually arresting omphalos (the Ancient Greek word for the centre of the earth): a central spherical hall that soars more than 40 metres upwards through all levels of the building, connecting to a lantern in the sky. Monumental in scale, this colossal orientating hall will be an enveloping gallery for the display of large-scale artworks, and will also allow visitors to move through the building via a spiralling pathway. As visitors travel through this space, they will be offered an unforgettable architectural experience as they journey between the building’s levels, finally emerging on the spectacular rooftop terrace. 

The design also features a number of exciting architectural spaces that will complement the exhibition galleries, including a large café directly connected to the expanded public parkland and a new NGV design store. Making the most of the building’s unique location, the scheme boasts a breath-taking public rooftop terrace and sculpture garden accessible from a rooftop, restaurant and members' lounge. The rooftop offers expansive vistas of Melbourne’s CBD, parklands and the Yarra Ranges never-before-seen by the general public. 

Befitting a purpose-built, twenty-first century gallery, the design features large format and highly flexible exhibition spaces with state-of-the-art display systems enabling the NGV to present significant works of contemporary art and design of unprecedented ambition and scale. The extent of exhibition space will allow the NGV to present international blockbuster exhibitions while simultaneously offering a dynamic program of thematic and focused presentations drawn from the NGV’s rapidly expanding permanent collection of Australian and international contemporary art and design. Offering a rich and all-encompassing cultural experience, the design also offers educational spaces, studios and laboratories for conservation of artwork. 

The building’s eastern façade incorporates a multi-level veranda, offering an external pathway between the building levels, as well as expansive views over the surrounding public gardens and Melbourne’s skyline.

The team led by Angelo Candalepas and Associates was selected following a nation-wide competition to find an Australian architectural team to design the new building. The winning design team for NGV Contemporary was selected by a jury of industry experts and professionals, including Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV; Jill Garner AM, Victorian Government Architect and Director, Garner Davis Architects; Francine Houben, Director of global architecture practice Mecanoo based in Delft; Corbett Lyon, NGV Emeritus Trustee and Director, Lyons Architecture (Jury Chair); Gerard Reinmuth, Director of TERROIR and Professor of Practice at UTS in Sydney; and Xu Tiantian, Director Founding Principal of DnA_Design and Architecture based in Beijing; and Special Advisor to the Jury Maree Clarke, a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung woman and an independent multi-disciplinary artist, designer and curator.

The winning design team comprises: Angelo Candalepas and Associates, ASPECT Studios, BoardGrove Architects, Richard Stampton Architects, Carr, Andy Fergus Design Strategy, Steensen Varming + Mott MacDonald, Taylor Thomson Whitting (TTW), Freeman Ryan Design and AX Interactive.

More via NGV here: ngv.vic.gov.au/ngv-contemporary

Image captions:
1-2. Daytime render of winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, and public green space, facing south. Render by Darcstudio

2. Daytime render of winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, arrival gallery and central spherical hall. Render by Secchi Smith. Artwork: Centre: KAWS (American born 1974) Gone 2019 Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, 2020. Left: Reko Rennie (Kamilaroi born 1974) i) OA WARRIOR I (blue) 2020 ii) OA WARRIOR II (pink) 2020. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2020. Right: Pae White (American born 1963), Spearmint to peppermint 2013. Purchased NGV Foundation with the assistance of the Donald Russell Elford and Dorothy Grace Elford Bequest, 2017. Render by Secchi Smith

3. Daytime render of central spherical hall in winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates. Render by Secchi Smith. Artwork: KAWS (American born 1974) Gone 2019. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, 2020

4. Daytime render of winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates. Render by Secchi Smith. Artwork: Front left: Del Kathryn Barton (Australian born 1972), Inside another land 1-75 2017. Gift of an anonymous donor through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2018 Front right: Ron Mueck (Australian born 1958), Mass 2016–17. Felton Bequest, 2018. Middle left: Dhambit Munuŋgurr (Djapu born 1968), Can we all have a happy life? (detail) 2019–20. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Orloff Family Charitable Trust, 2021. Back left: Jeff Koons (American born 1955) Venus (2016–20) from the Antiquity series 2008–16. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, Leigh Clifford AO and Sue Clifford, John Higgins AO and Jodie Maunder, Paula Fox AO and Fox Family Foundation, Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest and NGV Foundation, 2020. Back: David Hockney (English born 1947), The four seasons, Woldgate Woods (spring 2011, summer 2010, autumn 2010, winter 2010) 2010-2011. A gift from David Hockney, 2018 

5. Daytime render of rooftop restaurant in winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates. Render by Secchi Smith

6. Aerial render of winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, rooftop terrace and restaurant at dusk. Render by Darcstudio

7. Daytime render of winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, gallery space. Render by Secchi Smith. Artwork: Centre: Cai Guo-Qiang (Chinese born 1957), Murmuration (landscape) (鸟云 (Niǎo yún)) 2019. Purchased with funds donated by Barry Janes and Paul Cross, Margaret Munro Hendy Bequest, Norman and Pauline Bloom, Ying Zhang in association with the Asian Australian Foundation, Betsy Polasek, Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax, Peter Greenham and Anne Greenham, Anthea S. V. Robinson Bequest, Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest and donors to the 2019 NGV Foundation Annual Dinner and 2019 NGV Annual Appeal, 2020. Front right: Alex Prager (American born 1979), i) Crown #9 (Sunet five) 2013 ii) Crowd #11 (Cedar and Broad Street) 2013. Bowness Family Fund for Contemporary Photography, 2014. Back right: Paulina Olowska (Polish born 1976) The painter 2016. Purchased with funds donated by Connie Kimberley and Craig Kimberley OAM, 2018. Left: Alicja Kwade (Polish born 1979) WeltenLinie 2020. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, NGVWA, 2021. Back: Refik Anadol (Turkish born 1985, worked in the United States 2014-) Quantum Memories 2020. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund and Barry Janes and Paul Cross, 2021. Back left: Porky Hefer (South African born 1968) i) Sabre-toothed netfeesh 2020 ii) Suckerfish designed (2019); manufactured (2020) iii) Buttpus 2020, from the Plastocene – Marine mutants from a disposable world series 2019–20. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Barry Janes and Paul Cross, Neville and Diana Bertalli, 2021

8. Daytime render of café in winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates.
Render by Secchi Smith.

9. Render of winning concept design for NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, and public green space, at dusk facing south. Render by Darcstudio