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Kerstin Thompson Architects has been awarded the Sulman Medal for public architecture for Bundanon ‘s new Art Museum and Bridge for Creative Learning. The Sulman Medal is the highest honour that can be bestowed in the public architecture category of the NSW Architecture Awards.

Bundanon Trust Chief Executive, Rachel Kent congratulated Kerstin Thompson Architects for receiving this well merited award and noted “It has been an honour to work with such an extraordinary team, and wonderful to see the public enjoying the new Art Museum and Bridge for Creative Learning. Bushfire resilience and flood mitigation were driving forces in the architectural design of the Art Museum and Bridge. With the current climate crisis, it was vital that net-zero energy targets were actively sought. This expansion will widen public access, deepen engagement in creativity and the landscape, and position Bundanon both nationally and internationally.”

The jury stated “Bundanon creates a new appreciation of the Boyd Estate, its history and setting by purposefully inhabiting this landscape of cultural and physical significance. Centred in the historic core of the estate, the two principal components of the project, ‘the bridge’ and the buried museum respond artfully to the primary necessities of the brief and their varied environmental and landscape demands. Boyd’s studio forms a fulcrum between these two components and the original Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre by Murcutt, Lewin and Lark.”

Kerstin Thompson enthused “Bundanon is thrilled to have its vision recognised with a second Sulman. Bundanon’s site needed great care and respect for what was here already, which was very special, with one of the finest buildings in the country, but also a very complex cultural history.”

KTA also received an award in the Sustainable Architecture category in the NSW Architecture Awards.

Embedded within the landscape, the new 500m2 Bundanon Art Museum, designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) presents a year-round program of exhibitions of modern, contemporary and First Nations art, as well as new commissions. It includes a state-of-the-art storage facility that houses and protects Bundanon's extensive $46.5 million collection of some 4,000 items. The design is a collaboration between KTA, landscape architects Wraight Associates with Craig Burton, sustainable design engineers Atelier 10, and structural engineers Brett Wall and Phil Gardiner from WSP.

The new Art Museum and the Bridge for Creative Learning opened to the public in January this year and has welcomed over 5000 visitors since.  The Art Museum and Bridge for Creative learning are major works that elegantly integrate the site with the prior heritage buildings and the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre, opening Bundanon up as a centre for culture and learning, community engagement and appreciation of the landscape. 

Bundanon is renowned for world class architecture: The Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre, by architects Glen Murcutt AO, Wendy Lewin, and Reg Lark was awarded the Sulman Award for public architecture in 1999 and is considered to exhibit the masterly simplicity and resolution that characterises Murcutt’s best buildings.

The current exhibition season, Parallel Landscapes, open to the public until 6th November 2022, presents three exhibitions that explore different ways to view the natural world, ranging from the historical to the contemporary. The exhibitions are Arthur Boyd: Landscape of the Soul; The Hidden by Tim Georgeson and William Barton; and The River and the Sea by Reuben Ernest Brown (Uncle Ben Brown).

For more information on Bundanon visit www.bundanon.com.au 

For more information on Kerstin Thompson Architects go to kerstinthompson.com/

Image: Bundanon Credit: Rory Gardiner

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