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Youssofzay + Hart are part of the winning design team for the Powerhouse Ultimo renewal competition. The team is a design collaboration between Architectus, Durbach Block Jaggers Architects, Tyrrell Studio and Youssofzay + Hart, working with Akira Isogawa, Yerrabingin, Finding Infinity and Arup.
After winning a national design competition for the project, our creative collective of designers, place makers and innovators will play a key role in revitalising and expanding the museum.
The renewal of Powerhouse Ultimo will ensure the much-loved Sydney museum and its precinct flourish for generations to come.
Our concept reimagines Powerhouse Ultimo as a creative precinct beyond its walls, connecting the ever-changing life of the museum with the life of the modern city – all within a place that’s connected to, and in tune with, the ancient rhythms of Country.
In addition to restoring a natural, intuitive experience of the city, the design respects the heritage fabric of the location by ‘leaning back’, creating a continuous, walkable ‘gorge’ between old and new, from the Creative Courtyard to the Gathering terrace.
Respectful and immediate, the new building lives alongside the Powerhouse core, a powerful embodiment of both geography and backdrop. Framed and inspired by the wider landscape, we have organised the public domain and buildings to create a clear, legible experience for all who visit and use the museum.
With an eye on world-leading environmental outcomes, we’re also designing Powerhouse Ultimo to be energy net positive, water neutral and to align with the ambitions of the Powerhouse Climate Action Plan.
For the museum and its many visitors, the renewal will create new and restored exhibition and public spaces for a dynamic, applied arts and applied sciences program as well as exclusive international exhibitions.
It will also connect Powerhouse Ultimo to nearby precincts and to the city centre by re-orienting the museum to The Goods Line. The changes are all set to make the museum an even livelier destination, contributing to the vitality of the precinct, city and state.
Overseen by Create NSW, Powerhouse and Infrastructure NSW, the national design competition was completed in December 2022, when our collective was announced as the winner out of five design teams shortlisted to compete following an Expression of Interest process.
The competition jury said our winning scheme presented a “compelling and coherent vision for the renewal of the Powerhouse Ultimo site and the broader precinct”.
“Designing and connecting with Country fully informed the conceptual development of the project and is meaningfully realised and embedded in all aspects of the physical architectural, functional, landscape and urban response. This proposal presents a family of buildings which, through the varied representation of similar external materiality over time, reflect and respect the heritage and ethos of this innovative institution.”
Wendy Lewin LFRAIA Powerhouse Ultimo Renewal Design Competition Jury Chair