National Sculpture Garden Design Competition
![High angle view of sculpture garden at the National Gallery](https://media.nga.gov.au/PUxDCud_nd3Qwj8AcErA_saRxLQ=/1600x0//national-gallery-of-australia/media/dd/images/RG1607c_029.jpg)
National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Photographer: Rory Gardiner © National Gallery of Australia, 2023
NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA SCULPTURE GARDEN DESIGN COMPETITION
This is an exceptional opportunity for Australian and international designers to contribute to the Sculpture Garden and create a reinvigorated and unique landscape setting for the National Gallery within the heart of Australia’s national capital, Kamberri/Canberra.
The competition scope recognises the foundational importance of Australia’s First Nations peoples and culture with gardens and contexts of heritage value. The landscape of the Sculpture Garden puts art and public access and appreciation of art first. It also explores the potential of the wider national setting of Kamberri/Canberra.
The competition seeks to reposition the Sculpture Garden as an innovative outdoor art gallery that comprehensively embraces the biodiversity of the Australian landscape and the National Gallery’s purpose to make ‘art accessible, meaningful and vital to diverse audiences, locally, nationally and internationally’.
The National Gallery is seeking a design outcome of excellence which is distinctly Australian. The outcome will acknowledge the past and be of enduring value to the future. This competition extends the rich design legacy of the National Gallery and Australia’s national capital.
The Competition is being conducted as an open tender multi-stage process, taking the form of a two-stage design competition. The competition is now in its second and final stage.
Finalists announced for National Sculpture Garden Design Competition
On 20 June 2024 the National Gallery of Australia announced a shortlist of five finalists for the National Sculpture Garden Design Competition.
Five multidisciplinary Australian design teams will now progress to the final stage of the design competition with the outcome expected to be announced in October 2024.
Finalists (in alphabetical order)
CO-AP Holdings Pty Ltd (New South Wales)
The CO-AP team comprises First Nations consultant Bradley Mapiva Brown (Bagariin Ngunnawal Cultural Consulting), landscape architect Johnny Ellice-Flint (Studio JEF), artist Leila Jeffries, horticulturalist Robert Champion (TARN), architect William Fung (CO-AP), architect Phillip Arnold (Plus Minus Design), PMI Engineers and Heymann Consulting.
Emergent Studios Pty Ltd T/A Bush Projects (Victoria)
The Bush Projects team is a collective of landscape architects Matthew Hamilton, Sarah Hicks and Steph Kerr (Bush Projects), architects Louise Wright and Mauro Baracco (Baracco Wright Architects), consultants in First Nations knowledges and perspectives in design Christine Phillips, Jock Gilbert and Sophie Pearce (Barkandji) (Yulendj Weelam Lab), curator Mel George and artist collective chaired by Daphne Banyawarra (Ganalbingu) of (Bula’bula Arts), ecologist Dr David Freudenberger and Plan Cost Australia.
Hassell Ltd (Victoria)
The Hassell Ltd team is a collaboration between architect Alix Smith (Hassell), landscape architect Sharon Wright (Hassell), artist and descendant of the Yawuru people from the Rubibi/Broome area in Western Australia's Kimberley Region Robert Andrew, artist Tess Maunder, architect Ben Duckworth (Hassell), landscape architect John Hazelwood, horticultural ecologist Professor James Hitchmough and quantity surveyor Runil Gannoo (Slattery).
McGregor Coxall Australia Pty Ltd (New South Wales)
The McGregor Coxall team comprises landscape architects Adrian McGregor and Fraser Halliday (McGregor Coxall), Australian Waanyi multi-media artist Judy Watson, Indigenous engagement specialists Lea Gage and Dr Annie Burgess (Murawin), botanist / horticulturalist Neil Marriot, architect John Choi (CHROFI), and heritage consultants Rachel Jackson, Anna Leeson and Edward Robbins (GML Heritage).
SBLA Studio Pty Ltd (Victoria)
The SBLA Studio-led design team brings together Aboriginal design consultant Troy Casey (Blaklash), landscape architect Owen Café (Blaklash), poet and artist Jazz Money, creative director Simone Bliss (SBLA Studio), landscape architects Georgia Aldous and Matt Wakelin (SBLA Studio), horticulturalist Jac Semmler (Super Bloom), architects Aaron Roberts, Kim Bridgeland and Oskar Kazmanli-Liffen (Edition Office), experience designers Rae Perks and Dan Koerner (Sandpit), regenerative architect Jane Caught (Heliotope), architectural assistant Samuel Torre and quantity surveyor Vincent Lau (Prowse).