Despite its striking and instantly recognisable silhouette in the national landscape, widely held perceptions of the Australian War Memorial are often obscured by narratives centring on sombre themes of service and sacrifice.
With a $550 million expansion scheduled for completion in 2028, the memorial is making a concentrated effort to amplify modern service stories, including Australia’s peacekeeping activities. This pivotal development presents the opportunity to reframe the organisation as a world-class shrine, museum and research centre with ongoing relevance to modern Australia.
Our challenge was to modernise the Australian War Memorial’s identity while upholding core values of honour, respect, and commemoration. The question became: how can we maintain a deep reverence for Australian service personnel while redefining the memorial’s cultural significance to younger, more diverse audience groups? Preserving heritage was a key consideration in creating space for a more inclusive narrative that channels contemporary expressions of the Australian spirit.