Solar power, passive temperature control, rain water harvesting, black water treatment, as well as the use of local materials all contribute towards the net-zero ambition for the project.
The Bundanon collection holds 1,448 works by Arthur Boyd as well Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. The Riversdale property includes a historic homestead complex as well as the Boyd Education Centre, designed by Glenn Murcutt, Wendy Lewin and Reg Lark in 1999. The new additions share an expansive public plaza, which is located near the existing nineteenth century buildings.
Project description by Kerstin Thompson Architects
The Bundanon Art Museum & The Bridge for Creative Learning for the Bundanon Trust is situated on the 1100-hectare property gifted to the Australian people by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in 1993. It includes a world-class creative learning centre for school students, a contemporary visitor hub, accommodation and a light-filled contemporary art gallery – partially buried into the landscape, housing the Trust’s $37.5 million Arthur Boyd art collection.
Prioritising the existing landscape and its ecology, and responding to the current and future climatic conditions of the site, the design draws on the distinctive Australian native bush land and rural Australia’s flood ‘trestle’ bridges as points of inspiration. The new facilities are housed within a new 140-metre-long by 9-metre-wide structure that at one end abuts the art gallery within the sloping hillside, continuing along to bridge an existing gully.
The new KTA designed facilities are intended to re-establish the historic Boyd cluster of buildings as the heart of the experience. “The design concept both preserves and transforms, is equal parts subtle and dramatic. Renown aspects of the current setting are maintained and their presence enhanced with an array of new and compelling visitor experiences.” It integrates architecture and landscape within the broader continuum of the site’s ecology and environmental systems.
