Powerhouse Parramatta opened to the public on Saturday 7 November with powerhouse parramatta free entry for most of its exhibitions. More than 26,000 people registered for the opening weekend, and the crowds were large and loud. One visitor, a writer whose family arrived in Parramatta as refugees in 1994, skipped the press preview to go with her parents and young son instead.
The writer became an Australian citizen at Parramatta Town Hall in 1997, and her parents still live in the city. The museum’s opening weekend, she said, was the clearest way she could think of to see what the building is for.
The institution dropped the word “museum” from its name. The writer says the change has drawn criticism, but the building makes the reason plain. Powerhouse Parramatta holds five exhibitions. It also has 30 residential studios, the Lang Walker Family Academy, a 200-seat demonstration kitchen, and a rooftop garden with an observatory and greenhouse.
A retail program doubles as an incubator for emerging designers. Taken together, these functions make the site hard to categorise.
A lattice built to three scales
The building sits on Burramattagal and Dharug land, on the Parramatta River at the northern edge of the Sydney CBD. Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki won the 2019 international design competition. The firm worked with Sydney-based Genton as local architect and Arup on engineering.
The site contains two cubic forms set to the city grid. The forms join at the upper levels. A porous ground plane links the Civic Link transport line to the riverfront. The total is 30,000 square metres.
Both volumes sit inside a lattice exoskeleton of more than 1,300 pieces. The lattice acts as both facade and structure. It is a fine, three-layered lattice. The designers say it was meant to work at three scales: hand, building and infrastructure. From across the river, the building reads as monumental. Up close, the surfaces are tactile. The materials include quartz-flecked GRC panels, waterglass-finish concrete floors, and a hand-applied render with mineral and seashell aggregates.
Powerhouse calls the building a lantern in the city, because it glows when lit from behind at night. Between the galleries, long corridors draw on the Japanese idea of mâ, the interval between things, people and time. The corridors open onto the river. The writer describes these corridors as long and light-filled.
Five opening exhibitions
The five exhibitions opened with the building, and the writer saw only one of them in full, though powerhouse parramatta free entry made coming back easy. That exhibition was Task Eternal. Li Hu and Huang Wenjing of Beijing practice Open Architecture designed it. It takes Ted Chiang’s short story “Tower of Babylon” as its starting point. Across four acts and more than 850 objects, it traces humanity’s urge to leave the ground.
Task Eternal includes a Burramattagal bumarang collected in Parramatta and on loan from the British Museum. It also holds pages from Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus. An F-1 rocket engine on display is the only one outside the United States. James Turrell’s Shangri La (Over the Hump) completes the list of highlights.
The writer praised the curation. She said a visitor can walk through without reading a label and still grasp the intent. Those who read more, she added, find much more to see. Other exhibitions follow the same approach. The Mall, designed by OMA with David Gianotten, looks at the shopping centre and at Western Sydney’s industry and innovation. The display includes a Parramall neon sign.
The Dark is an interactive exhibition built for children. Overflow is a First Nations-led exhibition about water Country. It includes a film by Ivan Sen and a design made with Country by Tyrrell Studio. Es Devlin: The Turning is the British artist‘s first major exhibition in Australia.
The Dark and Overflow sit alongside Es Devlin: The Turning, the British artist’s first major Australian show. For a closer look at her career, see Es Devlin’s Three Decades of Artistry, which traces her work through a London retrospective.
Australian designers and the shop floor
Many Australian designers worked on the project. Fiona Lynch designed the Lang Walker Family Academy. YSG designed the Powerhouse Residences. George Livissianis designed the hospitality interiors, including the restaurant Simara. Its aluminium, leather and cork sit beside furniture by Adam Goodrum and Grant Featherston. McGregor Coxall and Tyrrell Studio shaped the landscape.
The Powerhouse Store is a brushed stainless steel cylinder. Alexander Lotersztain of Derlot lit it from within. The store launched with the first Powerhouse Made collection, which Powerhouse’s own creative studio commissioned from its collection and exhibitions. Maison Balzac worked with the team behind The Mall to reimagine Denise Larcombe’s 1970s Crown Crystal design. Mud Australia makes refillable porcelain candles with scents inspired by the rooftop garden.
An incubator program is helping Caity Duffus bring her 3D-printed terracotta Mycelia House to market. The range runs from everyday pieces to collectibles at several price points.
Powerhouse Parramatta free entry and who it welcomes
Entry is free to four of the five exhibitions, and children under 16 do not pay. The writer argues that this powerhouse parramatta free entry policy, along with the wider free museum entry offer, explains much of the opening-day crowd. Powerhouse Parramatta, she says, works hard to make culture accessible to all, including people who have not always felt welcome in institutions like this one.
Free access is also a live debate for cultural institutions worldwide. For a look at how museums are responding to pressure on what they show, read Why Museums Are Signing Pledges Against Censorship, which explains the stakes for visitors.
Dining is led by Sydney restaurateur and chef Simon Sandall. The Opening Festival runs from 7 to 29 November, with talks, workshops, food, music and performances. The address is 34 Phillip St, Parramatta, NSW 2150.
The writer’s seven-year-old son and her 80-year-old father were equally delighted by the visit. She left feeling proud of Parramatta and Western Sydney. She plans to return many times, and she hopes others will visit too. Her reason is simple: the building is new, but nothing else in the country quite resembles it.
Frequently asked questions
Is entry free at Powerhouse Parramatta?
Powerhouse Parramatta offers free entry for most of its exhibitions. The article does not say which exhibitions, if any, charge admission.
When did Powerhouse Parramatta open to the public?
Powerhouse Parramatta opened to the public on Saturday 7 November. More than 26,000 people registered for the opening weekend.
Who designed the Powerhouse Parramatta building?
Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki won the 2019 international design competition for the building. The firm worked with Sydney-based Genton as local architect and Arup on engineering.
What is the Task Eternal exhibition about?
Task Eternal takes Ted Chiang’s short story “Tower of Babylon” as its starting point. Across four acts and more than 850 objects, it traces humanity’s urge to leave the ground.
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