National Sculpture Garden Design Competition

The National Gallery of Australia has announced a 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 winning team was selected for their vision of the National Sculpture Garden 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.

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

Between April and October 2024, the National Gallery ran a two-stage international competition, designed to attract the widest possible participation of national and international multi-disciplinary design teams. The competition scope recognised 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 sought 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’.

Shortlisted finalists included:

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 Jeffreys, 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).

The full Jury report can be downloaded here.