The National Gallery of Australia has announced that the winner of its $60 million National Sculpture Garden Design Competition is the team CO-AP Holdings.

The team  – made up of CO-AP, Studio JEF, TARN and Plus Minus Design – was selected for its joint vision of the National Sculpture Garden based on “respect, care and future ambition” for the three-hectare site.

The gallery said it had now begun fundraising “with an ambition to raise $60 million through philanthropy to cover the costs of the revitalisation.”

National Gallery Director,Dr Nick Mitzevich said: “The jury were struck by the devotion and care CO-AP Holdings had for the National Sculpture Garden. CO-AP Holdings understood the significance and gravitas of the existing garden and its legacy, but also the importance of bringing the garden into the 21st century.”

Their draft design imagined a Sculpture Garden that re-connects the gallery with the surrounding landscape, enhancing accessibility, lighting and amenities.

Other plans will be to replace the existing Sculpture Garden marquee with a permanent stainless-steel and glass pavilion that creates a new space for exhibitions, events and education programs.

The reimagined gardens will transform the current summer, winter and spring gardens into eucalypt forests, a fern gully, casuarina groves and grassy woodlands, while there will be a new promenade and campus square at the gallery forecourt.