SYDNEY.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia announced an innovative partnership with 3XN/GXN on sustainable contemporary art exhibition designs for the Museum in 2023-24.
MCA Australia is working with 3XN architects' award-winning green innovation unit GXN, which focuses on developing a sustainable practice through material and behavioural innovation. The Museum and 3XN/GXN are working together over the next twelve months to develop a set of architecturally informed sustainable and reusable solutions for built elements of temporary exhibitions.
Suzanne Cotter, Director of Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, said the move to develop solutions for more sustainable approaches to exhibition design is part of the ambition for MCA Australia to continue to develop best practices for an environmentally sustainable future.
“As a Museum dedicated to contemporary art and ideas, sustainability, which encompasses respect for equality, inclusion and the environment, is one of the pressing issues of our time. MCA Australia is part of a network of conversations with museums around the world in its commitment to developing environmentally responsible ways of working, reducing waste and our carbon footprint. 3XN/GXN architects have established their reputation as one of the world’s most innovative design studios for sustainable buildings. We are delighted that 3XN/GXN are partnering with us on this exciting, practice-based research with MCA Australia as its laboratory.”
Headquartered in Copenhagen, and with studios in Sydney, New York, London, and Stockholm, 3XN/GXN have developed a specialised knowledge in transformational projects: projects that give obsolete structures new form and character, that transform dormant neighbourhoods into thriving cultural hubs, and that unite disparate organisations into collaborative communities. For 3XN/GXN, that means focusing on user experience and wellness, while creating an architecture that enhances its context and uses: “Architecture Shapes Behaviour” and “Architecture Transforms.”
3XN/GXN was named one of the Most Innovative Companies in the World for their approach to radical sustainability in architecture. Their design for Quay Quarter Tower, in Sydney, was awarded ‘The Building of the Year’ at the World Architectural Festival in Lisbon, Portugal in 2022. Other major projects include the design of the new Sydney Fish Market, Copenhagen’s Royal Arena, the aquarium The Blue Planet, Ørestad’s vertical high school in Copenhagen, the Shenzhen Natural History Museum now under construction in Shenzhen, China, Muziekgebouw Concert Hall in Amsterdam, IOC Headquarters in Lausanne, and the UN City HQ in Copenhagen.
Lasse Lind, Partner and Head of Consultancy at GXN, and Fred Holt, Partner and Director of 3XN Australia, said: "We are delighted to partner with MCA Australia to deliver a new generation of exhibition design, based on low carbon, circular materials and design principles that will help reduce waste. For us, the climate emergency requires us, as designers and architects, to create designs that aren’t detrimental to the environment, irrespective of project scale. In the case of MCA Australia, this will be to create reusable, module solutions that act as the backdrop to the unique works represented at MCA Australia; respecting both the art and the planet."
