powerhouse parramatta’s steel-latticed museum opens with art by es devlin and james turrell

a new museum opens its doors in western sydney

Powerhouse Parramatta, the new museum designed by Moreau Kusunoki and Genton in Western Sydney, Australia, will officially open to the public on November 7th, 2026. Following years of construction along the Parramatta River, the monumental cultural building, with its lattice facade, is ready to welcome its first visitors, with five inaugural exhibitions including immersive installations by Es Devlin and James Turrell.

The opening marks a significant moment for Western Sydney, bringing the region its first state cultural institution and the largest museum ever built in New South Wales. Spanning more than 18,000 square meters of public and exhibition space, the building introduces a new home for the Powerhouse’s collections of art, design, science, and technology. More than 3,000 objects will be presented across the opening exhibitions, with one designed by OMA/AMO.

intricate architecture by Moreau Kusunoki and genton

The museum‘s distinctive steel exoskeleton has already established a striking presence along the Parramatta River. Designed by French and Japanese architecture studio Moreau Kusunoki with Australian practice Genton, the building comprises two large volumes enclosed by a white structural lattice. Its outward-facing framework allows for expansive, column-free interiors, giving the museum flexibility to accommodate installations of varying scales.

Beyond the galleries, the project introduces new public spaces along the waterfront, including a landscaped square connecting the museum to the river. A rooftop garden, observatory, and spaces for educational programming extend its use beyond conventional exhibition halls. With the building now complete, attention turns to the artists and collections that will occupy its vast interiors.

Es Devlin’s The Turning invites visitors into the artwork

Among the opening presentations is The Turning, the first major Australian exhibition by British artist Es Devlin. Known for her large-scale installations and stage designs, Devlin brings together five works exploring the relationships between human perception, collective memory, and the natural world.

The exhibition includes Forest of Us, a mirrored labyrinth that draws parallels between the branching structures of human lungs and trees, and Memory Palace, a three-dimensional landscape tracing moments that have shaped human understanding across 75,000 years. In Collective Portrait, visitors are invited to sit opposite strangers and draw one another, contributing to an evolving installation. Other works explore drawing and the biodiversity of the Sydney region, inviting audiences to take an active role in the exhibition.

James Turrell creates an immersive landscape of light

American artist James Turrell also contributes to the opening program with Shangri La (Over The Hump), a monumental light installation presented as part of Task Eternal, an exhibition examining humanity’s fascination with flight and space exploration.

The work belongs to Turrell’s celebrated Ganzfeld series, which uses light and color to alter the viewer’s perception of space. Visitors enter an environment of shifting hues, where the horizon appears to disappear and familiar boundaries become difficult to distinguish. The installation draws on Turrell’s longstanding research into human vision and sensory experience, offering an encounter with the uncertainty of depth and distance.

Elsewhere, the opening program includes The Mall, developed with OMA/AMO to examine the cultural history of shopping centers, and Overflow, a First Nations-led exhibition exploring relationships with water across New South Wales. An immersive children’s exhibition, The Dark, completes the five inaugural presentations.

The museum’s public opening also begins a 23-day festival of performances, workshops, and conversations, bringing activity into the galleries and surrounding spaces. Together, the exhibitions offer the first opportunity to experience Powerhouse Parramatta as a functioning cultural institution, with its architecture now serving the artists, collections, and communities it was designed to accommodate.

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project info:

name: Powerhouse Parramatta | @powerhousemuseum
lead designer: Moreau Kusunoki | @moreau.kusunoki
local architect: Genton
engineering: Arup
location: Parramatta, Sydney, Australia

previous coverage: August 2026
opening: November 7th, 2026

photography: © Rory Gardiner | @arorygardiner, unless otherwise stated