The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has commissioned a large-scale, interactive architectural work as part of its late-night companion program to the inaugural NGV Triennial.

A collaboration between architect Roland Snooks of Studio Roland Snooks, experimental architecture research collaborative Kokkugia and sound artist Philip Samartzis, Floe consists of a large-scale 3D printed sculpture that will be accessible by the public from 6 pm nightly until 28 January.

Visitors will be able to enter the installation, where they will experience a sound work composed of field recordings of Antarctic glacial accretion by Philip Samartzis.

Together, the architecture and sound are intended to act as a “contemporary evocation of ice.”

Samartzis, co-founder of the Bogong Centre for Sound Collaboration, is a co-curator of Super Field, an immersive, multidisciplinary exhibition currently on display in Melbourne that brings together audiovisual works from international and domestic artists in a space designed by architects Baracco and Wright.

The installation is the second large-scale architecture work to appear at the NGV this year, following the gallery’s annual architecture commission in the Grollo Equiset Garden as part of the Triennial, which this year comprises a series of enclosed courtyards by Retallack Thompson and Other Architects.

Opening on 19 January, the Triennial Extra program will see the NGV’s opening hours extended until midnight, with a variety of events, performances and pop-up bars and restaurants filling in the evening hours.

Also part of the Triennial Extra program is “Leading Change,” a session organized by Parlour that will see the heads of Melbourne’s architecture schools – all women – gathered together in conversation.

For more information on the Triennial Extra program, go here.