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Experience Melbourne’s newest example of media architecture

Following a multi-year research and development cycle, Science Gallery Melbourne presents its award-winning Digital Bricks. Located on Grattan Street between Swanston and Cardigan streets, this experience greets and welcomes visitors into Science Gallery Melbourne at Melbourne Connect.

The Digital Bricks at Science Gallery Melbourne involves over 200 LED screens placed behind glass bricks. With the largest combined pixel display in the Southern Hemisphere, and this living prototype exploring what would happen ‘if these walls could talk’.

The project results from design research led by Science Gallery Melbourne and Melbourne Connect, in partnership with the School of Computing and Information Systems. With architectural design by Woods Bagot and lighting design by Arup, the distinctive design and functionality also required interdisciplinary collaborations between construction, electronics engineering, graphic design, and lighting design.

The inaugural content piece, titled ‘The Digital Birthing Tree’ was created in consultation with Wurundjeri community and First Nations stakeholders at The University of Melbourne, reflecting First Nations and histories associated with the Royal Women’s hospital site where Science Gallery Melbourne stands. Read more about the content piece on University of Melbourne’s Pursuit. In June 2021, it won a Media Architecture Biennale award for Animated Architecture and a paper was co-authored on the topic of Decolonising the Urban Screen.

The Digital Bricks at Science Gallery Melbourne fuse technology and architecture with Australia's Indigenous culture using the world's highest resolution int...

For the 2022 exhibition SWARM, biomedical animator Drew Berry created 20 short films that display magnified animations of viruses. Read more about Virus One Million times on the exhibition website.

Keep an eye on our news page for detailed information about content programs.

In addition to Melbourne Connect and the School of Computing and Information Systems, thanks are due to the many collaborators on this project: Arup, AVIT, Byrne Construction Systems, Lendlease, Light-Ctrl, Reelize Studio, Woods Bagot. Banner video credit: ARUP.