Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge / Kerstin Thompson Architects
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Purpose and Location – Bundanon is a center for creative arts and education. Its purpose is to foster an appreciation and understanding of landscape and art and to support research and celebrate art and ideas.
Gifted to the people of Australia in 1993 by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, the Bundanon property is set in 1,000 hectares of bushland and parkland overlooking the Shoalhaven River, near Nowra. It is on the land of the Wodi Wodi and Yuin people.
Design – The conceptual design has developed a suite of buildings and landscapes that incorporate the many aspects of the site’s history (indigenous, pastoral, The Boyds, Education Trust) to function as a rich set of distinct historical and cultural periods in evolution of the site. It responds to landscape as subject and site of Arthur Boyd’s work and builds on the key interests evident in his paintings: the dynamic landscapes of fire and flood, the contrast and interplay between landscapes natural and cultural, indigenous and exotic as a fundamental source of inspiration for new works.
The impact of climate change is being keenly felt in Bundanon. Only two years ago, during one of Australia’s most horrific summers, bushfires ravaged the forest surrounding this site. Months later, floods occurred. So the new works, designed for strength and resilience, could not be more timely in response to this dynamic landscape shaped by fire and flooding.
The new works include two new buildings – the Art Museum Embedded in the Landscape and the Bridge, a creative learning center with accommodation, 160 meters long suspended over a ravine like a flooded bridge.
This core visitor program is co-located next to the historic Boyd cluster to achieve a centralized and single core. The new and existing buildings are united by a forecourt and an arrival hall.
