Sunday Arts Magazine

28 Mar 2022

Angelo Candalepas – Architect

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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.
With pathways through the building that connect the parklands to Southbank, NGV Contemporary will unify the
surrounding Melbourne Arts Precinct by connecting together the wider neighbourhood and reshaping the urban

experience of this important part of the city. In providing a unique architectural landmark for this complex triangular-
shaped site, the winning design provides a generous and highly accessible building, with large arched public entries

from the new public parkland, Southbank Boulevard and the corner of Kavanagh Street.
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.

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