Melbourne Victoria AUS

Client: Major Projects Victoria/ Arts Victoria/
Melbourne Recital Centre
Completion: 2008
Construction Value: $75.5M
Awards: AIA (National) Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture, AIA (Vic Chapter) Victorian Architecture Medal
William Wardell Award for Public Architecture
Marion Mahony Award for Interior Architecture
Joseph Reed Award for Urban Design

“This impressive project, which is the latest addition to Victoria’s cultural landscape, has reached the milestone of practical completion three months ahead of schedule.”

Premier Mr John Brumby, State Government of Victoria

The MTC and the Melbourne Recital Centre have been designed as neighbours in a revitalised street. They make an active hub on Southbank Boulevard. The café and restaurant facilities in each, box office and performance activity, with ancillary educational activities make this a place that is active day and night. The design ensures that both theatre and recital hall are part of the street – this is not an arts fortress, but made of shopfronts, engaging with the passersby.

Victoria’s newest music facility, the Melbourne Recital Centre has been designed as a pinnacle for musical appreciation and performance through its acoustic quality and amenity. The natural resonance of the hall immerses the listener in the sound of the performance. The performing conditions rivals the very best halls of the world. It is like the great halls of the old world: like Wigmore Hall and the Musikverein, but is a music space reborn, a contemporary place in the new world. It matches this excellence in the sophistication of its architectural imagery. Designed as a cultural hub and not just a hall, the MRC incorporates a 1000 seat auditorium, the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, and the 130 seat Salon for intimate performances, pre-concert talks and recording.

The design is fundamentally ordered around a procession from the street to foyer to the main spaces. This parti has its roots in the galleries of the great European performing halls, but its particular flow and mise-en-scene are of the 21st century. There is a range of significant spaces like the Salon, the patron lounges and VIP rooms, but the musical promenade culminates in the great space of the Hall. The MRC consolidates this city’s rich history for acoustic music performance, creating a beacon in the musical culture of Australia