Victoria Unveils Winning NGV Contemporary Design

The Victorian government has announced the winning design for a new museum of contemporary art, the centrepiece of its $1.7 billion revamp of the Southbank arts and culture precinct.

The winning design for the new development at 77 Southbank Boulevard was selected from a shortlist of four design teams following a two-stage process that began with an open call for submissions from Australian architects and multi-discipline design teams in 2018.

The design competition closed in January, following a three-month design period and subsequent deliberations between a jury headed up by the NGV Trustee and chair Corbett Lyon, state government architect Jill Garner and NGV director Tony Ellwood.

Angelo Candalepas and Associates, along with a collective of 20 Victorian and Australian-based firms with expertise across architecture, design and engineering, has been announced as the winning team.

Candalepas’ design, crowned with a rooftop sculpture terrace and restaurant, was selected ahead of three other design teams led by Open Weave, John Wardle Architects, and Field.

The contemporary art gallery will be part of a rebuild of Southbank's “arts spine” linking the Arts Centre and NGV International on St Kilda Road to Sturt Street.

It will be nestled in public gardens larger than the playing surface of the MCG with retail and hospitality offerings, performance spaces and public art.

▲ The design features arched entries, education spaces, science laboratories for art conservation, and a rooftop terrace with CBD views. Image: Supplied

The gallery will be the largest facility of its kind at 13,000sq m and will showcase contemporary art, design, fashion and architecture of local, national and international significance.

Candalepas and Associates principal Angelo Candalepas said the gallery, which will feature a central spherical hall that soars more than 40 metres upwards through all levels of the building, would reinstate Melbourne as the cultural capital of Australia.

“This project signals Australia as a great contemporary nation with a significant creative force and [the gallery] will be a beacon of the culture of our time,” Candalepas said. 

The project is expected to generate more than 11,000 jobs as well as hundreds of ongoing creative sector jobs after Victoria’s economy and tourism sector was hit hard by world-record lockdown conditions during the pandemic.

The state government committed $1.4 billion in funding towards the prject as part of its 2020-21 budget, making it Australia’s biggest cultural infrastructure project.

Early construction works on NGV Contemporary will begin in the next year, with full completion expected by 2028.

The broader Melbourne Arts Precinct will also include a new 18,000sq m public space, to be designed by Hassell and So-il, and upgrades to the Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres building by NH Architecture and Snøhetta.

Later phases of the Melbourne Arts Precinct project will include a new building to house the Centre for Creativity.

The centre will be run by Arts Centre Melbourne with spaces and facilities for arts organisations, a new performing arts gallery and an expanded Australian Music Vault.