Gadigal people of the Eora nation.
New South Wales
The Gallery Shop designed by Akin Atelier is an immersive resin installation of fluid contours developed with surfboard designer Hayden Cox, shaping a luminous space of shifting perspectives and refractions of light. It is located in the entrance pavilion of the Art Gallery of NSW’s new Sydney Modern building designed by the Japanese architects SANAA,
As the principal retail space of the new building, the shop’s design expresses the artistic endeavours of the expansion, challenging the commercial experience of an archetypical art museum shop.
As a translucent bubble within the larger gallery architecture, the Gallery Shop is unique in its functionality; showcasing books and objects to visitors and passers-by through the lens of the resin walls while reflecting its surrounds to preserve the architectural experience of the Art Gallery’s Sydney Modern building.
Akin Atelier has designed an immersive, ground-breaking retail experience unique to Sydney using bio-resin from surfboard material made locally by Haydenshapes. Positioned in the Entrance Pavilion of the Art Gallery’s new Sydney Modern building, the design and materiality challenge the commercial experience of an archetypical art museum shop. A translucent bubble within an architectural space reflects the surrounds and showcases merchandise through the luminous resin walls and playful sightlines to artworks.
The shared appetite for experimentation between the Art Gallery, architect and collaborators has created distinctive interior architecture for successful commercial retail operations while preserving the experience of SANAA’s architecture.