Pentridge Prison Tours wins top Design Award
Pentridge Prison Tours in Melbourne has been recognised by the Australian Good Design Awards with Best in Class in the Installation Design category.
Created by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and experience design and technology company Art Processors, the tours are an immersive exploration of the unsettling truths behind the historic site, told by those who spent their time behind its bluestone walls.
Pentridge Prison Tours was awarded the top prize over four other Gold Tick finalists for the experience’s immersive, historical and authentic capture of a raw part of Victoria’s past.
“Not only does it provoke visitors to question the nature of brutal incarceration, it also harnesses the stories surrounding Wurundjeri Land to ensure its narratives are not lost in the experience,” said the Awards jurors.
“We commend the multimedia design of the project, using audio, video, photography and physical recreations to really draw visitors into the depths of the prison, and believe the project vividly portrays the murkiness of Pentridge’s complex history.”
National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Acting CEO Philip Martins said:
“The Pentridge Prison Tours project was such an important story for an organisation like ours to tell. It required enormous levels of not only contemporary design skill, but a heightened level of emotional intelligence to respectively deliver the content. Art Processors were wonderful to collaborate with and we are overwhelmingly proud – not of just this award result, but the project as a whole.”
“We are incredibly proud to be recognised at the Good Design Awards,” said Art Processors CEO Mark Nihill.
“This award underlines that Art Processors is not only at the leading edge of experience design, but we continue to push the boundaries, redefining visitor experiences for world-leading cultural destinations.”
The Australian Good Design Awards is the country’s oldest and most prestigious international awards for design and innovation. This year, there were over 900 entries, judged by more than 70 Australian and international jurors, including designers, engineers, architects and thought leaders.
“To be recognised with an Australian Good Design Award tells the world this project not only represents design excellence, but it also surpasses the criteria for design innovation and design impact,” said Dr Brandon Gien, Good Design Australia CEO and Chair of the Australian Good Design Awards.
National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and Art Processors would like to thank project partners Shayher Group; the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation; composers Cale Sexton, Seaworthy, Nick Huggins and Chris Bolton; and our many other dedicated collaborators for making Pentridge Prison Tours a success.
And thank you to the jury panel at Good Design Australia for their recognition of this project.