Project: Mochaaa
Museum of Children’s Art
Harris St, Pyrmont is famously home to the Powerhouse Museum and the Ian Thorpe pool, but few people have discovered the jewel hidden amongst the warehouses further to the north. The Museum for Children’s Art sits at the top of a grand staircase, nestled in a natural sandstone rockface. The building perches like a delicate, yet assertive timber temple on a hill and the winding path leading to the entrance lets you embrace and discover the Pyrmont landscape. You enter the building through the middle of the facade and are immediately struck by a double height sheer face of Pyrmont sandstone in front of which sits a delicate helix staircase winding up through the main exhibition hall and out to the workshops. This sense of discovery isn’t left at the door, but filters through the museum with each space revealing something different and unique. A path through the site is suggested, but the journey through the museum is one of flexibility and choice allowing the artist or visitor to create their own experience.
The workshops are run after school for kids between the ages of 6 and 18. Each workshop is a self contained and flexible space that allows for creativity, production and exhibition. Every space is adjacent to a display corridor that hugs the walls of the workshops and contain cavities so that children can exhibit their day’s work and the viewer can observe the class without creating disturbance.
Almost as impressive as the museum itself is the oasis the space has created in an otherwise overdeveloped inner-city suburb. The workshops are placed strategically so as to evoke a feeling of art in a garden setting and a large part of the site is left untouched. A small cafe serving excellent coffee surrounded by lush native landscape is located in the sunny northern corner of the main building allowing a brief, yet sublime break from the city. The Museum of Children’s art is a great place to discover fresh new talent or just to soak up the sunshine.
Harris St, Pyrmont is famously home to the Powerhouse Museum and the Ian Thorpe pool, but few people have discovered the jewel hidden amongst the warehouses further to the north. The Museum for Children’s Art sits at the top of a grand staircase, nestled in a natural sandstone rockface. The building perches like a delicate, yet assertive timber temple on a hill and the winding path leading to the entrance lets you embrace and discover the Pyrmont landscape. You enter the building through the middle of the facade and are immediately struck by a double height sheer face of Pyrmont sandstone in front of which sits a delicate helix staircase winding up through the main exhibition hall and out to the workshops. This sense of discovery isn’t left at the door, but filters through the museum with each space revealing something different and unique. A path through the site is suggested, but the journey through the museum is one of flexibility and choice allowing the artist or visitor to create their own experience.
The workshops are run after school for kids between the ages of 6 and 18. Each workshop is a self contained and flexible space that allows for creativity, production and exhibition. Every space is adjacent to a display corridor that hugs the walls of the workshops and contain cavities so that children can exhibit their day’s work and the viewer can observe the class without creating disturbance.
Almost as impressive as the museum itself is the oasis the space has created in an otherwise overdeveloped inner-city suburb. The workshops are placed strategically so as to evoke a feeling of art in a garden setting and a large part of the site is left untouched. A small cafe serving excellent coffee surrounded by lush native landscape is located in the sunny northern corner of the main building allowing a brief, yet sublime break from the city. The Museum of Children’s art is a great place to discover fresh new talent or just to soak up the sunshine.
MOCHAAA press release
Like this:
Be the first to like this page.
Leave a Reply
