Old names back designing new museum for Adelaide
New York architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro is back on the job designing a new museum for Adelaide, two years after the state government tore up its last design for the mooted Adelaide Contemporary gallery at the same site on North Terrace.
It’s unlikely, however, that this design, on which DS+R, the firm behind the Big Apple’s High Line walkway, is again collaborating with local firm Woods Bagot, will go the way of their global competition-winning effort in 2018 – at least, as long as there is no change of government in SA.
For while the Liberal government of Steven Marshall scrapped the Adelaide Contemporary plan after it took power from Labor in March 2018, Mr Marshall, who has responsibility for Aboriginal affairs, is right behind this one – a key part of the wider redevelopment of the Lot Fourteen precinct.
Lot Fourteen is a high-tech innovation precinct on the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital. It sits on the edge of the CBD, between the Botanic Gardens and intersection of North Terrace and Frome Road.
The Premier announced an extra $50 million towards the construction of the building in November’s high-vis state budget which, including $85 million in federal funding under the 10-year Adelaide City Deal, brings money set aside for the project so far to $200 million. Early construction work is due to start on site this year.
No money was ever set aside for Adelaide Contemporary, despite the $2 million price tag of the competition.
But reappointment of the two architects was not announced and it was unclear what brief they were working to, said veteran arts figure Michael Lynch, who oversaw the Adelaide Contemporary competition.
“It’s an incredibly unconventional way to do it,” Mr Lynch told The Australian Financial Review on Thursday.
“[Mr Marshall] says his Aboriginal cultural centre is a completely different project to what Adelaide Contemporary was going to be. That being the case, you’d start with a brief for the building. You’d have expected they’d have to run a new competition.”
The state government declined to make images of the new design available on Thursday, saying the “preliminary” design concept by the two firms would be made public next month.
“A procurement process by the state government will seek to appoint an architectural firm to undertake the next stage of design development, in partnership with the AACC Aboriginal Ambassador David Rathman and Aboriginal stakeholders,” Lot Fourteen state project lead Diane Dixon said.
Ms Dixon also said the current name was a working title only.
“The state government is working with Aboriginal stakeholders to identify an appropriate name for the centre,” she said.
The museum would become a global tourism attraction by combining traditional storytelling with modern technology and “offering extraordinary immersive experiences,”Ms Dixon said.
It’s unclear whether the new building will include components of the original design. That building, while having a focus on contemporary art, was also intended to provide a home for the state’s extensive collection of Aboriginal art and cultural material.
The South Australian Museum holds more than 30,000 Aboriginal items from around Australia. For more than 50,000 years, the land around Lot Fourteen was a camping and ceremony site for the Kaurna people.
“I feel a bit sorry for the architects,” Mr Lynch said. “I still appreciate they might come up with a good building. But as far as I’m aware no one has any idea about what this centre is supposed to be, how it’s going to work, what it does to the [neighbouring] Art Gallery [of SA] and the [South Australian] Museum, how it fits with the Lot Fourteen site … it looks to me like political expediency writ in very big capital letters.”
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