AUSTRALIANTRAVELLER.COM
The |Culture fi x
GROUND-BREAKING
ARCHITECTURE
We can’t wait to see what Pritzker
Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt
pulls out of the bag when his design for
MPavilion – the country’s leading
architectural commission and hub that is
installed in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria
Gardens – is unveilved this summer. He’s
long been famous for his innovative and
environmentally sensitive buildings that are
rooted in Australia’s culture and topography,
and at the age of , he’s still delighting and
surprising us. Ten years in the making and
completed in , the Australian Islamic
Centre (pictured) is one of his most
ambitious projects to date. Located in the
Melbourne suburb of Hobsons Bay and
designed in collaboration with local Islamic
architect Hakan Elevli, it’s a striking space
for both Muslims and non-Muslims that
brings a contemporary slant to traditional
mosque design, with lantern-like skylights
acting in lieu of a minaret. And in Lightning
Ridge in outback NSW, a $-million opal
museum designed by Murcutt has been
given the green light: watch this space.NEXT YEAR WILL BE HUGE FOR ADELAIDE
Adelaide’s two longest running, marquee festivals turn in .
Adelaide Festival, which runs over days each March, and Adelaide
Fringe (Fringe performer Le Gateau Chocolat, pictured) which runs for
four weeks each year in February and March, both started life in .
Expect packed programs and exciting collaorations, such as Adelaide
Festival’s exclusive partnership with one of the world’s best classical music
festivals, Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence in France.
This collaboration, which will launch at upcoming Adelaide Festival, will
see the two festivals co-produce and co-commission major operatic
productions over a three-year period.
Meanwhile, the Fringe has won the bid to host Fringe World Congress in
. This gathering of international Fringe directors and organisers from
across the world will be held in the southern hemisphere for the fi rst time and
is a major coup for South Australia’s arts community. Expect it to further
PHOTOGRAPHY: MURRAY HILTON (DARWIN ABORIGINAL ART FAIR); TONY VIRGO (ADELAIDE FRINGE); ANTHONY BROWELL COURTESY ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA (AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIC CENTRE)raise the profi le of Australia’s ‘festival state’ as an arts destination.
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