National Museum of Australia
Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) · Canberra, Australia · 2001
ARM’s National Museum of Australia uses fragmented geometries, vivid color and an extensive looping circulation device to reject the image of a neutral national museum. The building is conceived as a set of interlocking stories and symbolic references rather than a single formal order, with exterior forms opening toward Lake Burley Griffin and the Acton Peninsula landscape. Completed for the centenary of Federation in 2001, the project is one of Australia’s most prominent works of deconstructivist and postmodern public architecture and remains deliberately provocative in its national symbolism.