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The Sir John Monash Centre opens at Villers-Bretonneux

Cox Architecture with Williams, Abrahams and Lampros, are honoured to present the Sir John Monash Centre.

Sited to the east of the original Edwin Lutyens-designed memorial, the design of the centre is carefully placed ‘within’ the overarching site geometry as set out by Edwin Lutyens in the original memorial design.

This geometry dictates the placement of the building and its proportioning; a design challenge taken on by the collaborative team, who worked carefully to incorporate the new with the old through a precise, single triangulated oculus, that looks up from the foyer to Lutyen’s tower.

The Prime Ministers of Australia and France, with Prince Charles as honoured guest, will open the new immersive destination on ANZAC day, Wednesday 25th of April 2018.

Cox Architecture, together with Williams, Abrahams, and Lampros have designed the Sir John Monash Centre in sympathy with the idea of the ‘enduring’; the enduring architecture, the enduring spirit, and the enduring sacrifice of many ANZACs.

Many Australian artists collaborated to create the experience that is the Sir John Monash Centre, evoking the very Australian characteristic of ‘mateship’ among the contributors, linking their work again back to the ANZACS, for whom mateship was a core experience on the Western Front.

The new additions to Villers-Bretonneux; the memorial museum, a monumental tapestry, a glass Rising Sun; will endure as works of collaboration, ensuring the ANZAC legacy lives on long into the future, in the most vivid and respectful way possible.

 

Photography by project partner Tim Williams.

Sir John Monash Centre

Villers Bretonneux, France

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Randwick, Sydney

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