A major Melbourne architect has won the contract to sort out one of the National Gallery of Australia's most pressing problems.
And it involves coffee and food, rather than priceless art and leaky ceilings.
The gallery has been without a cafe since the pandemic, although the outdoor Street Cafe by the entrance - essentially a coffee cart with seating - has been doing the heavy lifting in its absence.
Melbourne-based Kerstin Thompson Architects will design a new dining destination for the gallery, right inside the front door and beside the shop.
The award-winning architect was behind the two-year-old Bundanon Art Museum and striking Bridge, and the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
Thompson was awarded the Gold Medal, the Australian Institute of Architects' highest honour, last year.
Her team's design was chosen via an open tender process, thanks to a portfolio of cultural and heritage projects.
The NGA cafe will be the firm's first project in the Canberra region.
And it's high time; it shouldn't be too much to ask, after a long day of culture, for a pleasant and picturesque place to sit and enjoy the view, preferably with coffee, cake, lunch or a drink.
But this hasn't been possible for some time at the National Gallery of Australia, of all places.
While the building is undergoing major capital works all over the place at any given time, making the place, at times, feel like a building site, there hasn't been a dedicated dining space for art lovers to rest their weary feet and refuel.
The original cafe, located downstairs in a corner far away from the entrance, looked out on the Sculpture Garden but had no outdoor seating.
It closed during the pandemic, never to reopen.
The new cafe will be in the foyer next to the entrance, looking out onto the other side of the soon-to-be-redeveloped Sculpture Garden, taking in James Turrell's Skyspace, and the garden's latest addition, Janet Fieldhouse's Sister Charm.
Thompson said the cafe would enhance the art experience.
"We imagine it will be integral to the gallery circuit, a further place for the display of, immersion in, engagement with art," she said.
The gallery recently announced a national design competition for the $60 million refurbishment of the Sculpture Garden, which runs across three hectares.
The cafe will open directly onto the garden, but, crucially, will be seen from the street, and by visitors as soon as they arrive.
Associate at the firm John Hajko said the old cafe was in a problematic position.
"It didn't have a physical connection to the ground, even though it had a visual connection to the landscape," he said.
"I think it's really important that the entry is welcoming, and then the cafe is really well connected to the landscape, and that signifies for the entry to the gallery that it's a place to meet."
The space, which until recently was home to the Aboriginal Memorial, an installation of 200 hollow log coffins from Central Arnhem Land, has been behind hoardings for months.
Mr Hajko said the firm had been attracted to the idea of working with a set of buildings as significant as the gallery's.
"They're quite significant to Australian architecture, they're quite significant to Canberra and the Canberra region. At the time, they were a very significant commission for a local piece and an international piece of architecture,'" he said.
He said the architecture team planned to work through "a process of discovery" before starting construction in January, 2025.
The cafe is slated to open in July next year.
