Powerhouse Parramatta Opens in Sydney, Australia's Biggest Cultural Build Since Opera House

Powerhouse Parramatta, a 30,000-square-metre museum on the banks of the Parramatta River in western Sydney, opens to the public tomorrow. Its architects, Moreau Kusunoki and Genton, describe it as the largest cultural project completed in Australia since the Sydney Opera House.

The building is wrapped in a three-layered steel lattice exoskeleton that serves as both facade and structure. The Paris-based studio Moreau Kusunoki, working with Australian firm Genton, says the lattice references the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the industrial manufacturing heritage of the site.

"We designed the new Powerhouse Parramatta with the mission of calling the museum paradigm into question and conceiving a platform with limitless potential that evolves over time and through its users," Moreau Kusunoki said.

The scheme splits the museum into two blocky forms, connected at the upper levels and opening onto a riverside terrace above a garden sloping to the water. Two-thirds of the site is landscaped public space, planted with indigenous species under the guidance of the local First Nation community.

What does the exoskeleton buy the museum?

Because the lattice carries the loads, the interiors are column-free. The result is Exhibition Space 1 — at 18 metres high and more than 2,000 square metres, described as the largest column-free exhibition space in Australia. It has a mechanical hoisting door in five sections that can open the hall to the public riverside terrace.

"Together with engineer Jun Sato, we developed the concept of 'lattice' for the structural exoskeleton – a system of intricate lattices that are wrapped around the spaces of the museum and support their dynamic programming, providing total interior freedom," the studio explained.

Beyond Exhibition Space 1, the building contains seven further, more conventional exhibition spaces, 30 residential studios, co-working spaces and community-led learning facilities.

Much of the facade beneath the lattice is fully glazed, filtering natural light into the interiors. Moreau Kusunoki frames these transitional zones through the Japanese concept of mâ — the interval between things, people and time.

"The concept of 'in-between', or mâ in Japanese, is central to the design approach in all our projects," the studio said. "We carved these spaces throughout the museum's design as an indispensable factor of placemaking."

"In contrast with the opaque nature of the presentation spaces, we modelled the mâ spaces as transparent and full of natural light, looking over the Parramatta River below and onto the horizon and country beyond," it continued.

The interiors carry a neutral palette. Internal walls are clad in glassfibre-reinforced concrete panels with varied textures, made using quartz aggregate, waterglass-finish concrete and hand-applied oystershell render.

A rooftop observatory and a net-zero promise

A rooftop terrace holds a garden, a greenhouse and an observatory with telescopes beneath a retractable roof. The ING Garden Pavilion will host talks, workshops and community and industry programmes.

The museum has been designed to operate at net-zero carbon, with renewable energy and water systems and zero-waste exhibition principles. It is the first public building in Australia to be assessed as a 6 Star Designed project under the Green Building Council of Australia's new Green Star Buildings tool. That is the assessment; the proof will come only once the building is running.

What opens tomorrow?

Five major international exhibitions open with the building, including Task Eternal, an immersive show on humanity's journey into space, staged in Exhibition Space 1 and designed by Chinese studio Open Architecture. Es Devlin's The Turning features in the opening programme.

A three-week opening festival runs to 179 events and showcases more than 3,000 objects, over 1,600 of them from the Powerhouse Museum's own collection. As part of the celebrations, Dezeen will host two talks on the museum's design and making — one with the architects, engineers and construction teams, the second pairing Dezeen co-CEO Benedict Hobson with OMA/AMO managing partner David Gianotten to discuss The Mall, an exhibition on the evolution of shopping centres.

Powerhouse Parramatta forms part of a $1.3 billion infrastructure renewal programme for Australia's largest museum group, alongside the expanded research and public facilities at Powerhouse Castle Hill, completed in 2024. The heritage Powerhouse Ultimo renewal remains underway, with completion expected by late 2028 — the point at which the full programme, and the claim of a "new museum model," can finally be judged.