The South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA) Bega Valley Regional Gallery has unveiled a major expansion designed by Sibling Architecture, marking a significant cultural milestone for Australia's Sapphire Coast region. The 2024 completion adds 500 square meters of exhibition, archive, storage, and workshop spaces, along with a striking new facade that transforms the gallery into a more prominent cultural hub for the community.
The Sapphire Coast, stretching from Bermagui in New South Wales to the Victorian border, has been actively working to boost tourism while expanding cultural offerings for its creative communities. This gallery expansion represents a key component of that broader vision, designed to enhance the region's capacity to host both local and international exhibitions while serving as a focal point for community cultural activities.
Sibling Architecture's design features a dramatic new roof punctuated by south-facing skylights that significantly increases the internal volume of the gallery space. This architectural intervention brings gentle natural light into the exhibition areas, reducing reliance on artificial lighting while creating more dynamic viewing conditions for artwork. The addition of a purpose-built archive facility and advanced climate control systems enables the gallery to accommodate national and international touring exhibitions that previously would have been impossible to host.
The design process involved extensive collaboration with various arts and cultural user groups, with stakeholder and key user group sessions ensuring that the diverse requirements and unique uses of the space were properly addressed. Sibling Architecture worked closely with regional arts organizations, indigenous groups, and representatives from the adjacent library and administrative offices to create a facility that truly serves the community's needs.
The new facade plays a crucial role in mediating between the cultural activities within the gallery and the public life of Bega's town center. Large framed windows perforate the textured steel-screen curtain facade, creating viewing opportunities that are accessible from the building's exterior. This design allows exhibitions to extend beyond the traditional gallery interior, showcasing art to the surrounding civic forecourt and engaging passersby who might not otherwise enter the gallery.
New workshop spaces strategically positioned to overlook the reception and office areas create visual connections throughout the building, fostering a sense of community and collaboration. The gallery windows are carefully oriented toward significant elements of the surrounding landscape, allowing visitors to take breaks from exhibitions to reflect on views of Biamanga (Mumbulla Mountain) on the horizon or observe the public life happening in the town garden across the road.
The project extends beyond the gallery building itself to include a comprehensive redevelopment of the adjacent public forecourt. This key civic space has been enhanced for community use with new shading structures, soft landscaping, and urban furniture. The landscape and building were conceived together as an integrated design, providing additional amenities to the forecourt while creating seamless connections between indoor and outdoor spaces.
The existing forecourt lawns have been supplemented with endemic planting and trees, which are also incorporated into new planters around the building's perimeter and throughout the forecourt area. This landscaping strategy provides natural relief to the urban environment while celebrating the region's native flora and creating more comfortable outdoor gathering spaces for community events and casual social interaction.
