Powerhouse Parramatta Opens

Powerhouse Parramatta opens today, marking a major new chapter for cultural life in Western Sydney and the largest cultural infrastructure project in the region’s history. Designed by Moreau Kusunoki in collaboration with Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, the new museum creates a major cultural destination for Parramatta, bringing together art, science, design, technology and First Nations knowledge in a major new cultural institution.
For more than seven years, Studio Ongarato has worked in close partnership with Powerhouse, becoming deeply embedded in the institution’s transformation and evolving cultural practice. Building on the founding mandate of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, established in 1879, the long-term partnership has helped shape a reinvigorated vision for Powerhouse, balancing conservation, preservation and custodianship with active engagement with contemporary practitioners, commissions and new ideas. The work reflects a shared ambition to evolve the role of the museum and how it connects with its audiences.
Studio Ongarato developed the Powerhouse identity across strategy, digital, print and environmental design, creating a cohesive institutional voice across multiple touchpoints. Approaching identity as a cultural practice rather than a conventional rebrand, the studio’s strategic inquiry informed a dynamic visual framework grounded in the institution’s history, collections and evolving role in contemporary culture and community.
The opening program brings together five major exhibitions, presenting more than 3,000 objects from the Powerhouse Collection and institutions around the world. The program spans immersive experiences for children, the first major Australian exhibition of British artist Es Devlin, a First Nations led exploration of Water Country, an ambitious exhibition tracing humanity’s pursuit of flight.
Also opening, The Mall, developed with OMA/AMO which examines the history, evolution and cultural significance of the shopping mall. Highlights include the archive of architect and urban planner Victor Gruen, Levi’s 501 jeans worn by Steve Jobs, early barcode designs and an autonomous ballet of warehouse robots by Japanese artist yang02, developed with KNAPP. Studio Ongarato contributed to The Mall exhibition and designed and art directed the accompanying bookazine.
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Designed as a new cultural destination for Parramatta and Western Sydney, Powerhouse Parramatta will make world class culture accessible to broad audiences, with four of the five opening exhibitions free to visitors. The $915 million project extends beyond the new museum to include a new collection storage facility at Castle Hill and the digitisation and preservation of more than 371,000 objects in the Powerhouse Collection.

Around the opening

On 8 November at 10.30am, Studio Ongarato’s Associate Creative Director John Wilson, Andrew Simpson of Vert and Space Popular join The Guardian’s Deputy Culture Editor Sian Cain to discuss the making of The Mall, exploring design as cultural production, sales mechanism and object of consumption.
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On 15 November at 2.30pm, Studio Ongarato Co-founder and Director Ronnen Goren joins Design Director Joseph Johnson for the Front Edge: Australian Design session 4 exploring languages and legacy.
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