State Library Auditorium & Photography Gallery | Cullen Feng + Andrew Andersons

This project involved the creation of a new 350 seat tiered auditorium housed in the original bookstacks below the iconic Mitchell Reading Room; the revitalisation of a large atrium space in the Macquarie Budling to serve as foyer/breakout space for the auditorium; the creation of two new gallery/circulation spaces the larger one as a dedicated photography gallery allowing parts of the Library’s extraordinary collection of two million images to be displayed for the very first time and the upgrading of the public entrance of both buildings to provide complying equitable access.

The shear heads of the concrete columns removed from the original structure are retained and visible within the auditorium space suspended below four new large steel trusses. The perimeter of the room has been designed with timber cladding metaphorically surrounding the visitor with a memory of the bookstacks from which the space was carved.