TarraWarra Museum of Art is a leading not-for-profit public art gallery that features inventive and stimulating exhibitions and programs about twentieth and twenty-first century art, and holds one of the country’s most important collections of Australian art from the 1930s to the present day.

The Eva and Marc Besen Centre, designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects with landscape architecture by OCULUS and Wurundjeri horticulturalist and artist Craig Murphy-Wandin, is a multi-purpose learning and performance space for family and children’s programs, talks, forums, workshops, live arts, and educational programs.  The design team worked together to generate a concept that integrates architecture and landscape within the site's landscape and infrastructure. The 100% electric, fossil fuel free building, settles into its surrounding landscape complimenting the main Museum building.

With over 17,000 different plants and 50 different species, our design references the native vegetation found along local waterways to align with the site’s ecological context and ensure the landscape seamlessly interacts with the broader site’s hydrological systems. We aimed to acknowledge and reconcile the various layers of history while also speculating on the site’s future. The retention of the poplar trees was important for both Marc Besen and Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Joy, Craig’s mother, because although introduced, they provide vital habitat and biodiversity.

Transforming what was once a road, we designed a sculpture walk between the new Centre and existing Museum. The outdoor walkway features sculptures from the permanent collection by acclaimed artists such as Clement Meadmore, Lenton Parr, Robert Klippel and Antony Gormley. Punctuating the walk are site salvaged rocks to encourage pauses and rest stops along the way. Connecting the two buildings, the sculpture walk frames views of the stunning natural vistas of the Yarra Valley. A centrepiece of our design is a dramatic water feature, responding to TarraWarra’s name which means ‘slow moving water’ in the local Woi Wurrung language.