New NGV Contemporary To Be Australian Made

Four major architectural and multi-disciplinary design teams have been shortlisted to take the next step in the NGV Contemporary Design Competition, bringing the project another step closer to construction.

The Victorian Government today announced John Wardle Architects, Field, Angelo Candalepas and Associates, and Open Weave will continue to the final stage of the competition to design the largest museum of contemporary art and design in Australia.

Open to Australian architecture teams, the opportunity to design and build NGV Contemporary offers an unparalleled platform to showcase Australia’s world-leading design and architecture industries. 

The shortlisted Australian teams will progress to design the new purpose-built NGV Contemporary creating 10,000 square metres of large-scale and flexible gallery spaces that will enable NGV to present works of a scale not currently possible in its existing sites.

The four shortlisted designs were selected by the NGV Contemporary Design Competition Jury for their innovative design, consideration of sustainability and connection to place.

NGV Contemporary will be located at 77 Southbank Boulevard in Southbank and will be dedicated to the showcasing of contemporary art, design, fashion and architecture of local, national and international significance amid a new 18,000 square metre public space in the heart of a transformed Melbourne Arts Precinct. Development Victoria is proud to be the delivery agency for the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation project, Australia’s largest ever cultural infrastructure project

The four shortlisted teams will now progress to the second and final stage of the design competition in which they will further develop their design concepts. The successful design team will be announced in early 2022.

NGV Contemporary will strengthen the NGV’s reputation for promoting local and international art and design at its major pre-existing galleries – NGV International on St Kilda Road and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square.

Before the pandemic, NGV welcomed over three million visitors a year across its two gallery sites – St Kilda Road and Federation Square. With the addition of the new gallery, they expect this number to increase to four million.