A decade-long project at the TarraWarra Museum of Art has recently been recognised on a national scale for its architecture.
The new Eva and Marc Besen Centre was awarded the 2025 National Award for Public Architecture at Architecture Australia’s 2025 National Architecture Awards, having already received a Victorian equivalent, the William Wardell Award.
Museum director Dr Victoria Lynn said that since the museum opened in 2003, they had two things on their minds.
“We always thought we would need a space for education and free access for school groups and the other thing we had in the back of our mind was that on the passing of Eva and Marc Besen, their entire collection would be gifted to the museum,” she said.
“So the idea was born to create a building that would provide free access to the collection in the form of visible art storage and combine that with a multi-purpose space.
“Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) had previously designed the cellar door here so we approached them to see what they might design for us, it’s been a 10-year project and a two-year build and it finally opened in March of this year which is fantastic.”
KTA were contacted for comment.
The building is built into the hillside on the TarraWarra site, with a minimal exterior and an interior that is split almost in two. One side contains a multipurpose space, the reception and other rooms and the other half is a temperature and humidity-controlled visible storage space, which can be toured from within or viewed from the other side of the glass.
Dr Lynn said they are utterly thrilled that the building received the award.
“It really puts TarraWarra and the Eva and Marc Besen Centre on a national platform and I hope it will attract people from all over Australia now to come and see the building and then also explore our activities, our programs and our collections,” she said.
“Visible storage is a relatively new concept, there are some really fantastic examples overseas, there’s a place called the Depot in Rotterdam and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has recently opened a visible storage.
“This is the only one of its kind in Australia, so we’re very unique and even just that in itself makes it a destination for lovers of art.”
The multipurpose space has also already hosted school groups, workshops for adults and children, lectures, forums and dance and musical performances, including one by the Australian Symphony Orchestra.
Dr Lynn said there were so many iterations in the design process, but when she looks back at Kerstin’s original sketch, it hasn’t changed.
“We managed with all the challenges to preserve the original intentions of the design and the project, challenges included the weather and also getting trades out here is not always the easiest thing and sometimes we were importing materials so that got caught up,” she said.
“The biggest challenge was the pandemic because that meant there was a delay in the design process and also in starting the build, but it is better than what we thought it would be.
“You don’t know on paper how beautiful the light is going to be in a space until you’ve experienced it, I think Kerstin’s genius is that she can visualise light and surfaces in advance of them being built, so it’s a very calming space, very gentle and it’s just better than we imagined.”
The centre is named after Eva and Marc Besen, the founders of TarraWarra Estate, who also donated an expansive collection of artworks they had been collecting since 1952 to the collection after their deaths. Marc, who died aged 99 in November 2023, was alive to see the start of the build before his death.
Dr Lynn said Marc would come and look at the build in his wheelchair and was just so happy.
“He always loved the idea that children would be exposed to art at an early age and he was so thrilled that children would be in this space that he had donated the funds to build,” she said.
“It utterly honours the legacy of their collecting and the calibre of work that they collected, they were one of the most generous families in Melbourne for the arts, so it was really obvious to us from the start that we should dedicate the building to their name.”
The Eva and Marc Besen Centre is open to the public from 11am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday, with tours behind the glass available on Thursdays and Saturdays.
The jury’s citation, who decided the award winner, can be read here: architectureau.com/articles/2025-National-Award-for-Public-Architecture.
