New details of SANAA’s Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion

This week new details of the expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), the Sydney Modern Project, a new building designed by the Japanese architecture studio SANAA.

The Sydney Modern announced more details about its new building. The new structure will sit in contrast to the gallery’s 19th-century neo-classical building, with a "public art garden" connecting the two. The project will be built as an extension to the gallery, with a multi-level atrium will have, through glass walls, views towards Sydney Harbour near the centre of the city.

Image of the Sydney Modern Project by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

Typically light, transparent, and open to its surroundings, the new building designed by SANAA responds to the site’s topography with a series of rectangular pavilions that cascade down towards Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Bay.

The new building will almost double the museum’s exhibition space, from 9,000 to 16,000 square meters (97,000 to 172,000 square feet).

Highlights of the Gallery's expansion include a prominent new spot for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, a major exhibition gallery, a contemporary art space repurposed from a former WWII oil tank and dedicated studios for education and community programs.

The Sydney Modern Project is already under construction and expected to finish in 2022, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in 2021.

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View from Woolloomooloo by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

Sydney Modern Project: aerial view by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

Sydney Modern Project: column-free gallery by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

Sydney Modern Project: view of the atrium by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

Sydney Modern Project: creative studio by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA

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KAZUYO SEJIMA & RYUE NISHIZAWA. SANAA

SANAA. Kazuyo Sejima (Ibaraki, Japan, 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, Japan, 1966) worked independently from each other before founding the SANAA Ltd. studio in 1995. Having studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University, Sejima went on to work for the renowned architect Toyo Ito. She set up her studio in 1987 and in 1992 was proclaimed Young Architect of the Year in Japan. Nishizawa studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. In addition to his work with Sejima, he has had his practice since 1997.

The studio has built several extraordinarily successful commercial and institutional buildings, civic centres, homes and museums both in Japan and elsewhere. These include the O Museum in Nagano (1999) and the N Museum in Wakayama (1997), the Day-Care Center in Yokohama (2000), the Prada Beauty Store in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2001), the Issey Miyake and Christian Dior Building in Tokyo (2003) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004). Sejima also designed the famous Small House in Tokyo (2000), the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio (2001-2006), the extension to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002 – ), the Zollverein School, Essen, Germany (2003-2006), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003-2007) and the Novartis Campus WSJ-157 Office Building, Basle, Switzerland (2003 – ).

In 2004 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale for their distinguished work on the Metamorph exhibition.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won the 2010 Pritzker Prize.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition was directed by Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman to direct the Venice Architecture Biennale, since its inception in 1980.