ACCA’s building, completed in 2002, and designed by local architects Wood Marsh, has become one of Melbourne’s best loved architectural icons. The distinctive rusty steel façade contrasts with the shiny, interpressed metal and glass surface of the foyer’s interior, creating a space designed to provide an exciting contemporary art experience.
Based on the European model of the kunsthalle or ‘exhibition hall’, ACCA is, in its simplest form, a large shell for the display of contemporary art. ACCA has four gallery spaces of varying sizes, which open out from the distinctive foyer space.
In the words of Wood Marsh:
“The building is designed to make reference to its function…a sculpture in which to show art. It was also designed to support art practice in an optimistic way…and to be a robust laboratory for experimentation. Openings in the external fabric are kept to a minimum and the vocabulary of steel frame and taut metal skin references past occupation of the site, namely warehouses, foundries and sheds.”