The Fox: NGV Contemporary will be a place to take the pulse of the creative world, of both art and design.

As a physical landmark, our proposition for the NGV Contemporary is an earthy, grounded material presence, a chamber for contemporary art and design connected to place.

Its skin, a customised ceramic system, provides a field of natural colour, of varying textural depth, that catches the light on glazed surfaces. A glass slice midway through the ceramic volume of the gallery prises open its interior world, and releases a beacon of light into the evening sky.

Drawing together the collaborative efforts of a broad design collective, we were guided by the principles of designing with Country and designing for our city. The ambition was to create a future gallery acting as a catalyst for all kinds of connections – between art, design and activism, across the environment, technology, politics, and our diverse cultures.

From the outset, we established themes and a framework for conversation with Traditional Owners. Through engagement with the diverse voices of our First Peoples, there is potential to ‘create knowledge through experience’, to allow their living culture and knowledge systems to infuse the NGV Contemporary.

The NGV Contemporary will ‘take the gallery into the city’ by interweaving the key civic moments of arrival from the street or garden, contemplation over Country and the sky with the controlled exhibition spaces that will house the works of artists and designers from around the world. These civic moments will forge connections with Melbourne in all its diversity.