Sydney Modern Project Shortlist

John Hill

23. October 2014

Photo: Jason Starr/Flickr, via Creative Commons license

The Art Gallery of New South Wales has invited twelve Australian and international architectural firms to submit concept designs for the Sydney Modern Project, a major expansion of the museum.

The invited architectural practices are:

• Candalepas Associates, Sydney
• David Chipperfield Architects, London
• Fender Katsalidis, Melbourne
• Herzog & de Meuron, Basel
• Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA, Tokyo
• Kengo Kuma & Associates, Tokyo
• Kerry Hill Architects, Singapore
• Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, Madrid
• RPBW (Renzo Piano Building Workshop), Genoa
• RMA Architects (Rahul Mehrotra Architects), Mumbai
• Sean Godsell Architects, Melbourne
• Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, New York

According to Gallery director Dr. Michael Brand, through the two-stage invited competition, "the Gallery is seeking ideas that will create an architecturally ambitious, intelligent, sensitive, sustainable and highly functional design. Our site overlooking Sydney Harbor will inspire each of the invited architectural practices, all of whom have extraordinary design skills."

Dr. Brand chaired the jury* that selected the 12 invited firms and will select up to five architectural practices to develop their designs in early 2015. Based on these final submissions, "in April the jury will select an architectural practice that will work closely with the Gallery and stakeholders to develop a detailed design," per a statement from the Gallery.

*Sydney Modern Jury members:

• Dr. Michael Brand, (Chair) Director, Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Ms. Kathryn Gustafson, landscape architect with Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (Seattle) and Gustafson Porter (London)
• Mr. Michael Lynch CBE AM, CEO West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong
• Professor Toshiko Mori, Robert P Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture Harvard University Graduate School of Design
• Professor Glenn Murcutt AO, Australian architect and recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2002
• Professor Juhani Pallasmaa Helsinki-based architect, professor emeritus and widely published writer
• Ms. Hetti Perkins, member of the Eastern Arrernte and Kalkadoon Aboriginal communities and curator, filmmaker and author