Lahznimmo Architects will lead the design of a $30 million expansion of the Museums Discovery Centre site at Castle Hill in north-west Sydney, providing more space for the Powerhouse collection and creating more opportunities for public access.
The project will see the construction of a new public-facing building, Building J, which will facilitate increased public education programs, workshops, talks, exhibitions and events.
Owned and operated by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS), the Museums Discovery Centre currently comprises six buildings, five of which are primarily for storage and one, Building E, which is accessible to visitors. In the year 2017-2018, 17,481 people visited the site. The Australian Museum and Sydney Living Museums also maintain collection storage and conservation facilities on the site.
The architects say in planning documents that Building J will provide an important new public interface with Showground Road, with the curtilage designed to integrate with the immediate surroundings, complementing the adjacent TAFE site and to providing a permeable landscaped setting along Showground Road.
Building J at Museums Discovery Centre, designed by Lahznimmo Architects.
“Whilst industrial in nature, it will recognize its public/civic role, and will announce the presence of the Powerhouse within the area,” the design statement read. “The overall form will be simple, minimizing expressive elements and articulation.”
The building’s façade will be formed of two key materials, corrugated aluminium, and corrugated precast concrete, with the façade “tilting, folding, peeling” to create openings. “The entries are marked by civic-scaled folds in the facade, tilting inward to lead visitors and staff into the building,” state the architects. “As the facade continues to the north, the facade peeling is limited to allow more controlled views into working areas such as the conservation laboratory.”
The ground plane will be designed to feel like a continuous public accessible plane, and have strong indoor/outdoor connections.
The landscape architect Aspect Studio envisions a diverse planting palette of understorey and ground cover species, which will improve the bare ground of the existing site, “creating and connecting to existing fragmented habitat areas.”
The expansion of the Museums Discovery Centre is part of the wider renewal of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, which includes the new Powerhouse Parramatta.
A state-significant development application for the project is on public exhibition until 1 December.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
