2019 National Architecture Awards: National Award for Interior Architecture

Jury citation

A private art storage facility in an inner-city Sydney suburb, Dangrove constitutes a masterful arrangement of sublime spatial sequences. This exquisitely robust space is industrious and functional at the ground level and transitions to a series of connected curation and evaluation spaces on the upper level. The arrival and procession through the building is an experience of immense theatre.

Designed to house an expanding and internationally significant contemporary Chinese art collection, the interior of this state-of-the-art facility is formed through the combination of muscular and controlled formalism, and a calm and ordered material palette. It deftly and expertly blends pragmatic storage, technical facilities, and exhibition and event spaces.

A hierarchy of experiences has been created by these spaces, their interrelationships and the dramatic use of filtered natural light. Every aspect of the interior has been considered as a space of beauty, regardless of its role. Details are extraordinarily precise, creating a space that is technically and functionally flexible.

This is an interior that is designed to serve its current use explicitly; however, it will easily adapt for public use should the opportunity arise in the future.

Dangrove is located in Alexandria, New South Wales, and is built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

— Dangrove will be reviewed by Laura Harding in a future issue of Architecture Australia.