Client: Mona Museum
Year: 2015-2020
Pharos and Siloam are significant recent additions to the Mona Museum complex.
Pharos extends over the Derwent River with the centrepiece Faro restaurant surrounded by large scale artworks by renowned artists James Turrell, Jean Tinguely and Randy Polumbo.
Subterranean Siloam comprises a series of tunnels and art spaces connecting Pharos to the original Museum, and incorporates Alfredo Jaar’s ‘The Divine Comedy’, an immersive art experience in three parts.
Air conditioning systems in the Pharos wing have been designed to provide precise temperature and humidity control suitable for the environmentally sensitive artworks, and utilise displacement air distribution incorporated into the artworks for minimal visibility. Systems in the Siloam wing include artwork critical systems for the heat and water intense Inferno (part one of ‘The Divine Comedy’); stratification layering for cloud formation in Paradiso (part three of ‘The Divine Comedy’); and controlled environment systems serving the Solstice chamber.
Electrical services for both wings have been carefully integrated into the unique architectural design for minimal visual impact whilst maintaining the full flexibility required for gallery spaces. Lighting has been designed to accentuate architectural features and enhance the artworks.
Having significant areas of the complex located underground, within the sandstone foundations, presented unique challenges for the design, routing, and waterproofing of services. A very high level of coordination, through 3D modelling of services designs, allowed key areas such as the thirty-five metre long Middle Tunnel to have all services seamlessly hidden.