Dezeen Debate features SANAA's "overlapping" Sydney Modern extension
The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Debate newsletter features SANAA's extension of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Subscribe to Dezeen Debate now.
Architecture studio SANAA has extended Sydney's Art Gallery of New South Wales with rectangular pavilions. Set to open this weekend, the Sydney Modern volumes cascade down a hillside overlooking Sydney Harbour's Woolloomooloo Bay.
The extension features saw SANAA design four galleries as well as learning studios for children, smaller exhibition areas, a studio for multimedia works and the Tank – a world war two naval fuel bunker that has been converted into providing 2,200-square-metres of space.
The studio said it aimed for Sydney Modern, which is powered by renewable energy through the use of solar panels and rainwater, to be "harmonious with its surroundings".
Commenters had mixed opinions on the project, with one labelling it an "appalling conceptual mess", whilst another loved "how the complexity of the whole is formed from simple, interconnected and overlapping volumes".
Other stories in this week's newsletter include Herzog & de Meuron's revamp plans for London's Liverpool Street station, Denise Scott Brown's plea to refuse proposed changes to the National Gallery and Space Encounters' residential development in the Netherlands.
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