Revised design unveiled for Adelaide’s new Aboriginal art center

On February 1, Adelaide’s Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC) released the final designs for its new 11,500 square-meter complex. The project is helmed by New York-based studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) and Australian architecture firm Woods Bagot. Construction is scheduled to begin later in 2021 with a planned completion date of early 2025.

In June 2018, DS+R and Woods Bagot were selected to co-design Adelaide’s new AUD 152 million (USD 116 million) public gallery, then named Adelaide Contemporary. The plan was later revised by South Australian Premier Steven Marshall ahead of the 2018 state elections, turning it into an Aboriginal art center with the addition of AUD 50 million (USD 38 million) in funding in November 2020.

The new designs for AACC were developed in close consultation with the Aboriginal Reference Group (ARG), and inspired by local Indigenous cultures. The central three-story building, offering 7,000 square-meters of exhibition space, will include golden weaving columns surrounding an open-air courtyard, which references temporary Aboriginal dwellings known as wurlies or humpies. Neighboring the Adelaide Botanic Garden, the upper-level galleries will offer an un-obstructed view of AACC’s natural surroundings. The ground floor features an outdoor gallery and amphitheater alongside terraced landscapes and reflection pools planted around the central structure. 

AACC aims to become Adelaide’s new landmark attraction, and will include the presentation of virtual reality, digital technologies, and performance facilities in a celebration of Aboriginal cultures. The new center will house an extensive collection of Australian Aboriginal artifacts, including more than 30,000 items from the South Australian Museum’s collection.

The center will be built within the develoment Lot Fourteen, aimed to combine technology and culture in the city’s center, next to the Australian Space Agency, the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, and the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre. Lot Fourteen was previously the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which moved into a new building in 2017. 

DS+R is known for its design of New York’s multi-use cultural center The Shed in 2019, and its involvement with the USD 450 million expansion of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2017. Woods Bagot was involved with the redevelopment of the Adelaide Convention center in 2017 and designing the new building of the Melbourne Business School in 2019.

Celina Lei is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific. 

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