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The Melbourne Museum was designed by Denton Corker Marshall Architects and finished construction in 2001. Situated in the Carlton Gardens, it was commissioned by the Victorian Government Office of Major Projects on behalf of Museums Victoria. The museum is a rich response to Melbourne’s urban condition, and provides a place for education, history, culture and society to engage with each other in a contemporary setting. It is now an important part of Melbourne’s soft infrastructure.

Description
The Melbourne Museum is a post-modernist building, structured with a grid-like order that embraces eccentric metal clad forms extruding out and creating an irregular sculptural composition with moments of abstract colour throughout the building. A building of the public, the museum is arranged in a volumetrically individual layout, referencing Melbourne’s iconic Hoddle Grid, which allows the importance of each component of the buildings historical, cultural and social significance to be read in loosely equal hierarchy and individuality, examples being the Imax theatre, and Aboriginal centre. The building is can be dissected into different spaces so an individual can navigate through and around the building in an orthogonal manner. It is both a single building, and a network of individual buildings integrated into the landscape of the Carlton Gardens. The new museum is axially aligned with the adjacent neo-classical Royal Exhibition Centre, and references it along with the skyscrapers of Melbourne’s central business district, with its monumental scale, and horizontality with protruding vertical facets. The sticks and blades that make up the Melbourne Museum are signatures of Denton Corker Marshall’s architecture. The most iconic detail of the building is the spectacular cantilever that projects over to the west, on the central axis with the Royal Exhibition centre, this cantilever can be seen from kilometres away. On the northern side resides a large, taller sloped roof than that of the cantilever, similar in scale to the dome of the Royal Exhibition building.

Key influences and design approach
Denton Corker Marshall specialise in city planning and urban design, and mainly concern their practise with responding to social desires. The Melbourne Museum is situated in a unique precinct; adjacent to a large local landmark, located within a large public park. Contrasted against the neo-classical Royal Exhibition centre, Denton Corker Marshall separates the two with an events plaza, yet connects them again underground with a car park, defining their motto; “A new connection between the old, the new, past and future“. Their approach to such a prominent part of Melbourne’s historical and cultural infrastructure was to bring the past and existing exhibition building, into a new context and attempting to redefine a museums role as a public building. Denton Corker Marshall also envision the building to be just as responsive to its context as it is now, in the future. In a meeting place for community, the building itself acts as a community of different programs and meanings, combining to make a whole. In a wider context, the museum refers to Melbourne’s city grid in its planning, and integrates the landscape of Carlton Gardens; housing a Forest Gallery which is situated within the building, and also providing areas of exterior circulation around the building. Formally the Melbourne Museum is motivated by sculpture. Denton Corker Marshall manipulates sculptural forms to meet the constraints of the buildings context and program.

Awards
Their accomplishments have given them a place in numerous awards, being honoured for their high design quality throughout their international practises. They have received awards from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) that top any other firm, one of which was rated most prestigious and highest honour; of their contributions to Australian architecture. The Melbourne Museum was one of their award-winning projects. One award in particular was the RACV Award for major tourist attraction, where it received 1,428,238 visitors during the years of 2010-11, which the Melbourne Museum received top honours for. In March 2012, the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards will be held in Cairns, where the Melbourne Museum will be represented for Victoria as a national level. Melbourne Museum’s Science and Life gallery was honoured with the Large Permanent Exhibition Award due to its outstanding design and flow, among many other awards during 2010 – 11.