sanaa’s mca, sydney
Sydney Modern was not SANAA’s first time in Sydney. An international architectural competition to design an extension to Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art was held in 1997, with SANAA selected as the winner. In 2000, the scheme was abandoned upon discovering historically significant colonial dockyards below the site. A second competition was held in 2001 which was also abandoned: the winning design by Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton resulted in public outcry as it proposed demolishing the existing building.
"At the time, we were not so happy with these things, but we don't hate this city.” (Nishizawa)
“I thought I'd already won that one." (Sejima, on being invited to the 2001 competition)
SANAA’s 1997 scheme is characteristically diagrammatic, minimal and open. Square slabs, a radiant glass facade, and alternating floor heights corresponding to each floor’s function. At centre, a spiral staircase connects George Street to Circular Quay, connecting each floor visually and programmatically. This is one of SANAA’s first international works and was very early in their career working together. What could have been a luminescent foreshore counterpart to the Opera House has instead been forgotten to time.
Excerpts
‘This development is an annex to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. It is located next to the existing building on the west shore of Circular Quay, near the famous Opera House. The MCA requested this new annex to contain an extension to the exhibition galleries, a cinematheque with 2 cinemas, a restaurant and cafe, function area, art archive for the education program and the main entrance for both the new and existing buildings.
The site faces two busy, parallel pedestrian flows: the boulevard surrounding Circular Quay which leads people to the Opera House, and George Street, the main thoroughfare of The Rocks area which is frequented for its hotels and shops. These two busy streets are currently disconnected by a large height difference and the solidity of the row of buildings between them. The client considers this an issue for our project to solve. And a further factor was given for us to work on - to utilize the new architecture to enliven cultural activity in the area and add visual impact to this site, regarded as Australia's 'public face'.
Given these concerns, we are designing this building as a layered city park covered by glass. We are seeking many kinds of interactions with the city public. The various functions are distributed over the repeating square floor slabs. This multiplicity is reinforced by differing the ceiling height of each storey, corresponding to the occupancy program. We also proposed a staircase-passage which is directly open to the public. It runs through the whole building from the ground floor to the top floor, which means it also forms a solution for access during the different operating hours of each program. People can move freely into this building by using this staircase, thereby enjoying visual contact with the programs of each floor, and with the excellent views around Circular Quay. The Grand Slope on the ground level, where cafe and restaurant are provided, is also open to the public. It acts as a 'drop-in' meeting spot for Circular Quay, while also connecting George Street to the Quay and providing a strong entrance to the Museum.’
From El Croquis SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa) 77(i) + 99, 1983-2000.
‘"I have no idea how she [Sejima] does it, but the magic is unmistakeable," said the film-maker George Miller, a member of the panel that picked the winning design.
But Sejima and Nishizawa, her working partner, did not get to cast a spell on Sydney. Soon after the announcement, and without much explanation, the plan, and the architects, were dropped.
A second competition for the MCA was announced in 2000 and Sejima was belatedly invited to take part. Not surprisingly, she refused, saying: "I thought I'd already won that one".
Nishizawa […] said the duo had no hard feelings about the MCA competition. To prove it, the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation invited the MCA's director Liz Ann Macgregor to open the show last night.
"At the time, we were not so happy with these things, but we don't hate this city," he said.
Sejima and Nishizawa have not seen the new design [by Sam Marshall], but he approves of its aim of blending old and new. Nishizawa believes designing a contemporary art museum is a thrilling challenge for any architect.
"Museums have atmospheric surroundings and they are popular," he said. "Any kind of people can see them and this is something that I love."’
From Louise Schwartzkoff, ‘In Utzon's shadow: the other architects shunned by the city,’ Sydney Morning Herald, July 3 2009, https://www.smh.com.au/national/in-utzons-shadow-the-other-architects-shunned-by-the-city-20090702-d6k8.html.
Also see: Penny Craswell, ‘The Reimagined Museum of Contemporary Art,’ Architecture Australia, April 12 2012, https://architectureau.com/articles/museum-of-contemporary-art/.
Images and Drawings from El Croquis from El Croquis SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa) 77(i) + 99, 1983-2000.