The Maltings
The Art of Adaptation
2019–
Introduction
Since 2019, our involvement in the reimagining of this incredible historical site as a cultural precinct has been quietly evolving.
The Maltings is a 6-hectare Victorian-era maltings complex set in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales on Gundungurra Country. Our design sees the convergence of art, landscape and architecture. Working closely with our client - the MIIA Art Foundation and their collection of Contemporary Art; we have provided sensitive architectural responses to artworks and artists to reimagine the Maltings as a cultural precinct. The rich past, present physical condition and future vision of this site have been rigorously considered.
Technical details
MIIA Art Foundation
The project embodies adaptive reuse not merely as a practice, but as philosophy. At its core, The Maltings is a fusion: between culture and industry, wilderness and refinement, permanence and impermanence.
The architecture is deliberately responsive — flexing between the atmospheric intimacy of small gallery spaces to the scale and openness required for monumental installations.
These moments will unfold across both banks of the river, offering visitors not just art on display, but an environment in which to dwell within it. New architectural forms are not imposed but become a part of the bones of the ruins — sculptural volumes as insertions that echo the material language and scars of the past while carving out new terrain for experiences of contemporary art.
Photo: Photographer Unknown. Collection: Powerhouse Museum Australia. Gift of Tooth Company Ltd under the Australian Governments Tax Incentives for the Arts Scheme 1986
Photo: Photographer Unknown. Collection: Powerhouse Museum Australia. Gift of Tooth Company Ltd under the Australian Governments Tax Incentives for the Arts Scheme 1986
The original buildings, some of which still bear the marks of fire, are treated as collaborators in a spatial dialogue. The process is attuned to memory — of people, of place, of elemental forces. As nature resurfaces and architecture adapts, the site becomes a living installation itself — a place where past and present coalesce in quiet, enduring expression.
Part art museum, part hotel, part expansive gardens; this is a destination steeped in history and bursting with excitement for its future.
