Eva and Marc Besen Centre

The Eva and Marc Besen Centre responds to the client’s brief for a flexible, multi-purpose facility to support education, performance, and events at the TarraWarra Museum of Art in regional Victoria.

The design enhances the cultural precinct while sensitively integrating into the natural landscape and respecting the adjacent Museum of Art by Allan Powell. A low-lying form with a single glazed façade is wrapped in woven metal mesh, allowing the Centre to recede visually into the landscape while maintaining views and natural light. This subtle presence supports a strong visual connection between interior spaces and the surrounding terrain.

An open collection store, uncommon in museum design, was a key brief element. It reveals typically hidden archives through secure glazing, requiring a careful balance between transparency and protection.

The design preserves existing trees, incorporates drought-tolerant planting, and responds to topography with a partially subterranean layout that improves thermal performance and reduces wind exposure.

First Nations engagement was embedded in the process. Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Stacie Piper led engagement with Elder Joy Murphy Wandin, while Craig Murphy-Wandin developed the horticultural strategy and carved a stone beneath the water spout, honouring Tarrawarra, the Woiwurrung word for “slow moving water.”

The Eva and Marc Besen Centre demonstrates design excellence through its restrained yet transformative presence and its rethinking of conventional cultural typologies. The challenge was to expand the TarraWarra Museum offering while preserving the integrity of its setting and architectural legacy and enabling new modes of engagement.

The design responds with a low-lying, compact form wrapped in a woven metal veil that softens its profile and dissolves the boundary between architecture and landscape. Generous glazing connects interior spaces to the surrounding Sculpture Walk, reinforcing the museums founding principle: the enjoyment of art in and through the landscape.

Designed to Passivhaus principles with thermal performance far exceeding requirements, the partially subterranean siting leverages earths thermal mass while preserving 14 mature trees, demonstrating how architecture can enhance rather than compromise existing landscapes.

The open collection store redefines standard museum conventions by revealing typically hidden archives. Secure glass enclosures allow public access to the Besen familys collection, transforming a private archive into a shared cultural experience.

Engagement with Stacie Piper, Wurundjeri elder Joy Murphy Wandin, and Craig Murphy-Wandin was embedded in the design process, this ensured the new centre sits in harmony with Country and reflects values of care, connection, and continuity.

The Centres multipurpose interior supports education, performance, and events in a single, flexible, light-filled space. Every element - from its material palette to spatial adaptability - contributes to a conceptually bold and contextually grounded design.

The Eva and Marc Besen Centre pioneers innovative approaches to museum design through its radical transparency and advanced environmental systems.

The open collection store represents a paradigm shift in cultural institutions, challenging the traditional model of hidden archives, where back-of-house is now front-of-house. This challenges traditional museum conventions while maintaining stringent conservation standards through sophisticated air-tightness.

The buildings passive thermal design represents an innovation in art storage, designed according to Passivhaus principles with the art storage space achieving such thermal stability that mechanical systems can be switched off most nights. Energy modelling indicates temperatures remain between 20–24°C overnight for all but 40 hours annually, dramatically reducing energy consumption while maintaining conservation requirements.

The steel tensioned external screen with 46% open area innovatively balances heat reduction with even light distribution and visual connectivity. This mediates between architectural presence and landscape integration while providing climate control and security.

The multipurpose Learning Area employs innovative spatial flexibility through active acoustic systems and deployable acoustic blinds, allowing seamless transitions from Australian Chamber Orchestra performances to primary school workshops without requiring multiple spaces or excessive ceiling heights.

First Nations engagement was embedded as a core design methodology. A Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Stacie Piper participated in the Project Control Group, while Craig Murphy-Wandin collaborated on horticultural strategy and carved the boulder beneath the water feature, honouring tarrawarra — the Woiwurrung word for “slow moving water.”

The buildings future-proofing innovations include structural systems allowing major reconfiguration, expandable art storage capacity, and infrastructure for future battery storage.

The design demonstrates how cultural buildings can adapt to changing needs while maintaining their essential conservation functions, thereby resulting in a resilient facility.

The Eva and Marc Besen Centre establishes a new benchmark for sustainable cultural architecture with thoughtful social, environmental, and economic impacts.

The building utilises circular economy principles through comprehensive material reuse: all excavated fill remained on-site, excavated boulders were redeployed throughout the landscape, and existing road base was retained for the new Sculpture Walk. This approach eliminated waste while creating cultural value through Craig Murphy-Wandins carved boulder installation.

Environmentally, the project achieves remarkable efficiency through passive thermal design, with thermal performance exceeding standards. The buildings air-tightness and thermal stability enable mechanical systems to switch off most nights, dramatically reducing energy consumption. Concurrently installed solar arrays totalling 170.9kW across the precinct, with additional 229kW planned, demonstrate commitment to renewable energy transition.

The landscape strategy replaced monoculture with 17,000 plants across nearly 50 local species, creating habitat ladders supporting native wildlife while providing drought tolerance and bushfire resistance. Water sensitive urban design including swales, stormwater filtration, and recycled water systems manages 5000m² of irrigation, demonstrating regenerative environmental practices.

Socially, the transparent art storage creates unprecedented public access to significant Australian art collections. By revealing previously hidden collection storage, the design democratises access to cultural heritage, transforming exclusive private archives into shared public resources that will educate and inspire future generations.

Resilience design features include BAL29 bushfire rating, backup power systems, and future-proofing infrastructure ensuring long-term cultural continuity.

The Centre proves conservation can coexist with public transparency and environmental excellence. By successfully balancing transparency with conservation, accessibility with security, and innovation with sensitivity, the Eva and Marc Besen Centre provides a replicable model for cultural institutions.

The project proves that a collaborative design approach creates lasting value that extends beyond, contributing to cultural, environmental, and social wellbeing for generations to come.