National Gallery of Australia announces winning design team for Sculpture Garden

The National Gallery of Australia, located in Canberra on the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin, has announced multi-disciplinary team CO-AP Holdings, comprising CO-AP, Studio JEF, TARN and Plus Minus Design, as the winner of the National Sculpture Garden Design Competition.

The National Gallery is Australia’s national visual arts institution dedicated to collecting, sharing and celebrating art from Australia and the world.

Home to the most valuable collection of art in Australia, the national collection comprises over 155,000 works of art, including the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Their significant collection represents the whole of Australian art, modern art worldwide, particularly from Europe and America, and art from across Asia and the Pacific.

The winning design team for the Gallery’s Sculpture Garden was selected for their vision based on respect, care and future ambition for the iconic three-hectare site. The National Gallery and the CO-AP Holdings team will work together on the revitalisation of the National Sculpture Garden to create a living gallery for the 21st century.

National Gallery Director, Dr Nick Mitzevich said CO-AP Holdings won the competition with a thoughtful approach that showed a sensitivity and respect for the garden’s history and heritage; a plan for renewing, reconnecting and revitalising existing gardens and infrastructure; more than doubling the space for public art, while creating opportunities for new experiences and a permanent building.

Dr Mitzevich noted “The Jury were struck by the devotion and care CO-AP Holdings had for the National Sculpture Garden. CO-AP Holdings understood the significance and gravitas of the existing garden and its legacy, but also the importance of bringing the garden into the 21st century.

“We are excited by their vision to renew and reconnect the Gallery with the garden, and more than double the amount of space for works of art. We want our visitors to feel they are in a landscape that is enveloped in art and architecture.

“We are very much at the beginning of the journey and we look forward to working with the team to develop a final design and future vision for the Garden.”

The National Gallery will now begin working with CO-AP Holdings and key stakeholders to develop a design for National Sculpture Garden over 2025.

The Jury highlighted a number of design elements put forward by the winning team that will be explored for the final design including:

• Replacing the existing Sculpture Garden marquee with a permanent stainless-steel and glass pavilion that creates a new space for exhibitions, events and education programmes, while immersing visitors in the surrounding landscape.

• Creating seven distinct and interconnected gardens that weave their way around the National Gallery in a continuous circuit. The gardens will showcase Australia’s rich biodiversity, transforming the current summer, winter and spring gardens into eucalypt forests, a fern gully, casuarina groves and grassy woodlands.

• Introducing a new promenade and multi-use campus square at the National Gallery forecourt, creating a welcoming space for visitors and new display opportunities for art.

• More than doubling the space for art and cultural experiences across the National Sculpture Garden.

• Embedding First Nations principles and perspectives into the ongoing development of the design, and continued care of the garden, as a core principle of its future, ensuring continued stewardship and connections to Country.

The competition winning team participants include architect Will Fung (CO-AP), landscape architect Johnny Ellice-Flint (Studio JEF), horticulturalist Robert Champion (TARN), architect Phillip Arnold (Plus Minus Design), First Nations consultant Bradley Mapiva Brown (Bagariin Ngunnawal Cultural Consulting), artist Leila Jeffreys, structural engineer PMI Engineers, lighting designer Arup, wayfinding consultant Studio Ongarato, heritage consultant CAB Consulting, art consultant Felicity Fenner and quantity surveyor Heymann Consulting.

Will Fung from the CO-AP Holdings team enthused “On behalf of our entire design team we are incredibly excited to be selected as the winner of the Sculpture Garden Design Competition. We decided to enter the competition because we shared a deep love for the Sculpture Garden originally designed by Harry Howard, Barbara Buchanan & Roger Vidler. It is the most important modernist landscape in Australia and provides a beautiful counterpoint to Colin Madigan’s magnificent gallery building. We feel that this is a sustainable and respectful design decision. We are very much looking forward to exploring, developing and implementing our ideas for the National Sculpture Garden with the National Gallery of Australia.”

The winning design team for the National Sculpture Garden Design Competition was selected unanimously by a Jury of distinguished experts chaired by architect and Chair of the Heritage Council of Victoria Prof Philip Goad, along with National Gallery Director Dr Nick Mitzevich, Barkandji artist and curator Nici Cumpston OAM and renowned Chilean landscape architect Teresa Moller.

The largest investment into the garden since its creation, the National Sculpture Garden project will be realised through philanthropic support.

Further information on the National Gallery Sculpture Garden Design Competition is available here 

Image. National Gallery View of new Pavilion from Nakayas fog sculpture