The University of Sydney Chau Chak Wing Museum, Sydney, NSW

The University of Sydney Chau Chak Wing Museum is a striking building located at the gateway to the University. The world class gallery spaces will significantly expand the University’s current display space and for the first time, allow the hosting of major travelling exhibitions from first class international and national collections.

Housing an impressive cultural collection of over 443,900 items of great cultural, artistic, scientific and historical importance, it represents a major contribution to Australia’s arts and cultural landscape. The museum takes its name from the Chinese-Australian philanthropist and entrepreneur Dr. Chau Chak Wing, whose generosity supports the exhibition, preservation and fortification of this significant body of work.

On behalf of the University, NDY provided detailed, in-depth peer reviews of the project, ensuring that the D&C contractor was compliant with the University’s standards, previous concept design, industry design guides for critical museum spaces and Australian Building Standards.

As the building includes critical ASHRAE ‘A’ and ‘AA’ rated spaces for which maintenance of space conditions is crucial for the storage and presentation of priceless artifacts, extremely close attention to the mechanical engineering systems including consideration of mechanical plant arrangements, redundancy and control methodology was a focus of our role. NDY worked closely with the Independent Commissioning Agent to ensure robust testing and commissioning plans were developed.

NDY worked collaboratively with the design team and university to navigate alternative arrangements proposed by the contractors, with a high level of communication, transparency, flexibility in considering compliance with the brief and the ability to put complex engineering decisions in layman’s terms, assisting the project management team in assessing the changes.

The outcome ensures the safety of the artworks in the University of Sydney Chau Chak Wing Museum and invites the university and wider community to enjoy the collection in their modern and impressive new home for generations to come.