THE JURY
Carey Lyon LFRAIA - Jury Chair
Carey Lyon is one of the founding Directors of the Australian design practice Lyons, and is an Adjunct Professor with the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University. His practice’s work was recognised in the year 2000 with the Victorian Architecture Medal and in 2001 by representing Australia at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Carey Lyon was elected as National President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 2006/2007. He is also a Board Member of the Green Building Council of Australia.
Lyons work has been extensively published in a range of national and international publications including the Phaidon World Atlas of Contemporary Architecture and the recent Modern Architecture A-Z by Taschen. In 2006 their work was exhibited at the prestigious Beijing Biennale “Emerging Talents, Emerging Technologies”.
Lyons work has been the recipient of numerous design awards, including the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU, BHP Billiton Global Headquarters building in Melbourne, Victoria University Multimedia Centre, and the Automotive Centre of Excellence at Melbourne’s Docklands.
Lyons is committed to the integrated practice of sustainability design, and this has also been recognised by the 2005 and 2007 RAIA National Award for Sustainability. (194)
Paul SL Johnston RAIA
Paul graduated B.Arch (hons) from RMIT and has worked in the office of his father Lindsay W. Johnston FRAIA, Eastman, Heffernan, Walch and Button (EHWB) and Jacob Allom Wade.
Paul formed his practice in 2000. Characterized by a strong interest in participative and collaborative design to produce user-friendly buildings and projects contributing to sustainable community development, the core of the practice is housing in all its diversity. This includes a commitment to social justice in the built environment through the design of social and affordable projects. Paul’s work ranges from urban design, regional planning to small-scale adaptive reuse and furniture design.
As Chapter Councillor, Paul has represented the RAIA on housing affordability and sustainability forums with industry and community organisations.
With an ongoing interest in the modern movement and its lessons for sustainability, Paul chairs the Institute’s Twentieth Century Buildings Committee, the National Heritage Committee and is an advisory architect for Heritage Tasmania’s Works Application Assessment Committee. Paul has recently joined Docomomo to further research the distinctive qualities of a Tasmanian Modern Architectural Tradition. (174)
James Morrison RAIA
Currently the director of James Morrison & Yvette Breytenbach Architects, James Morrison graduated with a BArch from University of Cape Town and has worked with Van Der Riet & Cooke in South Africa; Furness Associates, UK.
In 2001, the practice won the Tasmanian Environmentally Sustainable Housing Competition for the Windsor Court Housing Redevelopment for cutting edge sustainable housing, which has now become Walford Terraces. Recently, the practice won the 2007 RAIA Tasmania Heritage Architecture Award for Rosny Historic Centre.
Morrsion & Breytenbach’s architectural approach aims to be contextually sensitive - its approach is derived from to the physical, cultural and social environment, integrating sustainability as a core design value and embodying an interactive, educational and accessible process.
Other work in the practice’s extensive portfolio include the Viridian Housing Development; Roaring 40 office refurbishment and interior design; the University of Tasmania Student Residences in Sandy Bay; Greenhouse, California USA; Tarremah School Development; Oriana Housing Development and the Hobart Co-operative Housing. (158)
Craig Rosevear RAIA
Craig Rosevear’s work has been featured across diverse publications such as Architectural Review Australia, Architecture Australia, Monument, Tasmanian Life, Elle Décor, Encyclopaedia of World Architecture, Living in Sydney and New Directions in the Australian House. Highly awarded, Craig has received RAIA Awards in Tasmania and New South Wales as well as National Awards. These include the Bennison Reed project with Leigh Woolley which received architecture and steel awards and the James Blackburn Triennial Award in Tasmania between 2000-2003; Archer House which received a RAIA National award and RAIA NSW Wilkinson award in 2001 and Moorilla with JAWS Architects which received an award from RAIA TAS and a commendation in the National Awards.
A graduate of the University of Tasmania, Craig has worked with Michael Viney Architects; Denton Corker Marshall Architects, London; Nation Fender Architects, Hong Kong and Eastman Heffernan Walch &Button before establishing Rosevear Architects where he is now principal. (150)
Adrian Franklin
Adrian Franklin is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tasmania and panellist on The Collectors television series. An anthropologist and social theorist, Adrian received his MA from the University of Kent and his PhD from the University of Bristol. He held the Chair of Urban Studies at the University of Bristol before assuming his role in Tasmania. Adrian’s research interests include biology, technology and society; the sociology of nature; tourism, travel and mobilities and collecting cultures and in the Tasmanian context particularly, the sources of variation in local attitudes to, and experiences of, nature. He is author of a number of works including Animal Nation, Nature and Social Theory, and Animals and Modern Cultures and editor of Tourist Studies. (120)
JURY CHAIR REPORT - CAREY LYON
It’s a pleasure to have been invited, and to serve, as chair of the Tasmanian Chapter Jury in 2008. I would particularly like to thank my fellow jurors Craig Rosevear, James Morrison, Paul Johnston and Adrian Franklin for their time and insights, and for the diverse discourse that is part of any jury process.
The jury was impressed by the overall standard of projects submitted in 2008, and, given the number of entries, undertook a short listing process. From this short listing, projects were selected for visits by the Jury.
The projects visited by the Jury were quite different in nature and execution, and as you would expect in Tasmania, located on some extraordinary urban and landscape sites.
There is clearly a growing local culture of architecture in the state, with both mature and younger practices submitting outstanding projects. The submitted projects, either through practices’ own design research, or more explicitly through a local discourse, are very much embedded in this local condition. This discourse includes consistent thematic of curating a landscape of sea and land through architecture, or dealing with specific and intense heritage conditions, or developing ideas for sustainability that suit a cooler climate.
Across the projects, there was also an attitude of experimentation, in which many of the projects were thought through from first principles, rather than through default responses.
The final awarded and commended projects all exhibited this attitude in different ways but each had a clear idea, about the program, or site, or the development of architectural form, or an architectural relationship to the city and landscape. In doing so, they provide a guide to the public, to government, and to the private sector on the value of design to the community.
PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Commendation: Hobart Integrated Terminal by Hassell
The Hobart Integrated Terminal by Hassell represents a highly successful transformation of the original airport, which has developed in a piecemeal fashion over the years.
Airports have traditionally been a difficult area of work for architects, with their emphasis on generic space and efficiencies. More recently, airports have begun to respond to what consumers want - as interesting places to arrive, wait and travel through - adding a sense of locality within the travel experience. Hassell have taken this approach and have applied it effectively to the major refurbishment work of the terminal.
Starting with a clear arrival sequence from the drop-off on under a linear curved canopy - described by the architects as being akin to an under-storey - into the ticketing areas, through to the departure lounge, culminating in large glazed windows looking onto the ‘landscape’ of the tarmac. The sense of place is reinforced in waiting areas by minimizing row seats, and replacing them with café style seating around a central bar and café, further adding to a radical shift from the conventional airport experience. Locally sourced timbers, emblematic of Tasmania, underscore the specificity and local qualities of the place.
At a functional level, the major refurbishment also successfully integrates the previously disparate activities of the different airlines using the terminal, not only improving operational efficiencies, but also to the wayfinding and management of queues and crowds. A new baggage handling centre, visible only from the tarmac, also sets a high benchmark for the design of a more prosaic element within the airport functions, with its sleek polycarbonate skin providing excellent natural light conditions for people working within the building.
The project is a highly successful transformation of the Hobart Terminal, bringing it in line with new thinking on the travel experience.
COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE
Award: Aurora Operating Facility by HBV Architects
HBV Architects’ delight in innovative manipulation of common industrial components towards the creation of Aurora Operating Facility was evident from the overall planning through to individual building components.
Three buildings housed administrative offices, large-scale storage and logistics and an oil management depot and facilitated the flow of personnel, sheltered loading areas from prevailing winds, and provided open views to offices.
In contrast to its near neighbours, the building sits lightly on and blends with the landscape. A simple post and beam portal frame is used throughout. Strong horizontal roofs that appear to float over walls, deep shadows from overhanging eaves, horizontal bands of glazing and precast concrete panel walls create a play of shadows and illuminated surfaces. The vertical masts are a delicate counterpoint. When needed a tension stayed structure of posts and cables allow structural members to remain slender and elegant despite large spans and cantilevered overhangs for an uninterrupted floor plate. Referencing the core business of the energy company - energy transfer through poles and suspended wire, this tension-stayed structure is elevated beyond the strictly functional to the structurally expressive.
All surfaces are unadorned - the inherent qualities of the robust materials are freely expressed. Common industrial components clearly articulated extend the utilitarian approach through to the detail.
The result is a building of disarming simplicity hiding a complex program and challenging technical and structural requirements, with a lightness that belies its size and bulk. An innovative approach at all levels of design has transformed a prosaic industrial shed into an uplifting example of architecture, in service of a strictly utilitarian brief and program, to the obvious enjoyment and benefit of its users.
URBAN DESIGN
Award: New Department of Emergency Medicine - Royal Hobart Hospital by Philp Lighton, Crawford Shurman, Health Science Planner Architects in Association
Public hospitals are not generally memorable in terms of an arrival experience by foot or ambulance, often being either institutional or functional in character. The new Department of Emergency Medicine at Royal Hobart Hospital by Philp Lighton Architects, Crawford Sherman Architects and Health Science Planner Architects in Association, is a bold attempt to reassert the role of a major urban hospital in the public life of the city.
By locating Emergency areas under the existing hospital forecourt, the existing entry experience was significantly enhanced. Two glass pavilions connect and engage with the primary street frontage, acting as a pivotal entry point to a range of possible services. The pavilions act to connect the street to the hospital front door through a series of small landscaped spaces, designed to allow visitors and patients to ‘step out’ of the hospital and promotes street activity through retail spaces.
This entry sequence is also integrated with a new arrival point for ambulances. Ramps for entry and exit lead to a lower level, and built without compromising the pedestrian experience at street level. Indeed, the strategy of splitting pedestrians and major vehicles across levels highlights the importance of pedestrian access and in turn, the connections of the hospital to the wider city. Large open voids, textural walls to the ramps and the ambulance arrival also carry the sense of the civic, transforming the merely functional.
The new Emergency Department is a fine example of how architecture and urban design, working together, can integrate major public buildings into the experience of the city.
RESIDENTIAL - NEW
Award: Fish for Breakfast by 1+2 Architecture
This simple complex of buildings and the spaces they create successfully captures the shack culture and all it evokes. The client’s extended family has fond memories and associations with the site, with the brief requiring the permutations and extensions of three generations to be accommodated. 1 + 2 Architects has designed a retreat that is sure to nurture and continue this tradition, with three separate pavilions each for a different generation that forms a central outdoor social space.
A simple and understated wall that demarcates the natural vegetation from the inhabited platform interrupts the gentle slope of the coastal plain. Two pavilions reach out over this wall to the sea, a third anchors the complex at the rear and forms a linear central space. Pavilion, social space, shelter and a framed view are all brought together in a wonderfully simple yet effective and evocative play.
Overall simple forms are deliberately chosen to unify a complex program. Internally, spaces are unified with uninterrupted ceilings. Low bay windows, bold cut-outs that form decks, and glass topped dividing walls create a wonderful array of subspaces that accommodate the varied needs of the extended family. The choice of unadorned timber and painted fibre cement sheeting as external cladding reinforces the shack references. This theme is taken into the interior where a limited palette of white plasterboard walls, plywood fittings that double as room dividers and timber floors further unify the spaces. The shack, its reflection of simple lifestyle, of intimate relationship with context, of economy of form and material, its blending with the landscape are all beautifully reinterpreted in this house.
Commendation: Ian & Jean’s by 1+2 Architecture
The architects were faced with a long narrow steep block and an overbearing conglomeration of suburban houses which hemmed in the site, while a spectacular view lay below the slope. The solution was simple but effective: cut out the neighbours and enhance the experience of the view.
In contrast to the surrounding houses, Ian & Jean’s presents a plain façade to the street with a colourful door and a canopy that sails overhead and projects down, inviting entrance and exploration. On entrance, stairs and the canopy direct the attention down to a deck and living area projecting beyond the slope. The fully glazed end to the living area captures a view of the sea and distant hills. Opening to the side, the deck takes in the sweep of Blackmans Bay. The living area slides back into the hillside forming a deep and enclosed space, a relief and counterpoint to the expansive setting.
The architects have skilfully managed a context of contrasts and found a solution that in resolving the problem of privacy from overlooking neighbours has accentuated the experience of the magnificent setting.
RESIDENTIAL - ALTERATIONS & ADDITIONS
Award: South Hobart Extension by Preston Lane Architects
Impressive on many levels, this contemporary addition and alteration to a 1920s red brick federation house in South Hobart has an instant appeal. ‘Extension’ appropriately describes this addition, which extends the existing house into the established garden and mediates between them.
New built elements unite and engage with the opportunities offered by the existing house and garden.
Ceiling planes and joinery elements create internal connections while wall planes screen neighbours and frame views. Steps define spaces and hierarchies within and the artful use of thresholds, decks and plinths serve to and are, of themselves, places.
The jury enjoyed the wilful denial of the garden on entry, which served to heighten the experience once realised.
Thorough, considerate and elegant, this new work is at ease within the established environment through being restrained in expression and materiality, and proud of its own character and the association.
RESIDENTIAL - MULTIPLE HOUSING
Award: Ball and Chain Apartments by HBV Architects
Increasingly, the limited opportunities for multiple residential developments in inner city urban areas demand architectural designs that take into consideration both the complex constraints of site and regulation together with commercial requirements to produce very specific design outcomes.
The Ball and Chain Apartments by Heffernan Button Voss Architects embrace such constraints and design accordingly to resolve competing values while achieving high levels of amenity demanded of inner city living.
Situated between the quarry face and the rear of the Georgian warehouses at Salamanca, a two storey insertion comprising two apartments straddles the existing (and operating) restaurant beneath. With considerable structural ingenuity and construction skill, the insertion also provides access to the rear of two other apartments contained within the upper two floors of the warehouse. While respecting the heritage significance of both the warehouse and quarry, this context is referenced to provide an aesthetic response of simplicity in form, finish and materials which contributes to the overall strength of the architecture.
Similarly, the design strategy for the interior sought a direct approach. The warehouse apartments’ interior spaces reveal the retained shell by clearly articulating the inserted divisions which are more furniture than walls, allowing light and views to be maximized throughout the interior often via adjacent spaces. Simple detailing between contrasting materials emphasise the overall design strategy.
The Ball and Chain Apartments achieve a new benchmark in the feasibility of construction within heritage and commercial precincts, elevating the value of good design as an essential component to inner city housing.
SMALL PROJECT ARCHITECTURE
Award: Fish349 Function Room, Terroir
Fish349 is a popular restaurant on the commercial strip at North Hobart. The new function room occupies a space previously used for car parking to the rear and primarily focuses on its internal character.
Both the original Fish349 restaurant and its subsequent function room were designed by Terroir. Whilst the new addition takes cues from the established character of restaurant, nevertheless, the expression is not repeated. This is manifest in the interior as a crafted origami plywood skin unifying a multitude of ordinary given and new materials. The resultant spatial qualities transcend its modest scale. A well dressed palette of ordinary materials, the exterior succeeds through consistency, good proportion and honed graphic sensibilities.
The project is distinguished by a thoroughly considered language throughout which guides, sculpts place, invites enquiry and provides rewarding solutions. The jury were also impressed with the logistics of the 11-week construction period.
SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
Commendation: 2 Salamanca Square Redevelopment by HBV Architects
Sustainability must increasingly be at the forefront of architects’ and policy-makers’ thinking in the design and planning of our cities. Although new buildings represent a part of this work that needs to be undertaken to transform cities, the more challenging issue is to create models for effectively upgrading existing building stock to acceptable sustainability benchmarks.
The 2 Salamanca Square Redevelopment by HBV Architects successfully responds to this challenge and imperative. It represents a highly commendable approach to sustainability, not only through its reuse and adaptation of the previous public building, the Antarctic Museum, into a commercial office but also by embedding sustainability into a whole range of project strategies. The project is to be applauded for seeking and obtaining a 4 Star - Green Star Rating (Design), which represents a ‘best practice’ level of sustainability. Notable in the project is the reassignment of an existing geothermal system for use in the new commercial office areas, the insertion of a new floor level within the existing structure, and the use of sustainable materials.
In summary, the redevelopment represents a commendable benchmark for sustainability, particularly for commercial development, which should set a successful precedent for future office developments within Hobart.
HERITAGE
Commendation: St Aidan’s Church by Architects Workshop
That questions of future use surround discussions about churches should come as no surprise. Changing congregations require less of the amenity that the large open spaces once provided, yet churches retain symbolic significance and function as key meeting places within the community.
The additions to St. Aidan’s Church by Architects Workshop complete the intended design of Alexander North by providing a new narthex entry, which also serves as a general meeting area. Other facilities are provided to support community gatherings and collectively, the new opposing wings complete the transepts of the cruciform plan.
The narthex addition is bold in its contrasting use of materials and rectilinear form but its architecture is also sympathetic to an ecclesiastical sensibility to verticality. Heavily engineered columns of laminated timber spaced at regular and close centres are suggestive of buttresses commonly associated with church building and produce a vivid graphic quality that both signifies the entry and broadcasts the continued life and energy of the church and its community.
The additions to St Aidan’s Church by Architects Workshop are outstanding, successfully extending the usefulness of the 1895 church with the necessary spaces to allow the changing community to find its place and architecturally embellishing the church’s role as both symbol and landmark and thereby forcefully expressing its continuing life and vitality.
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
Commendation: GHD Offices by GHD
To great effect, GHD’s office in the 2 Salamanca Square development has been orientated towards the internal quarry face, for the benefit of all users.
Whilst this bias locates conference rooms to the rear, this sequence is justified as a facility with lesser usage. Consistent with this egalitarian approach, break out spaces such as the kitchen and informal meeting spaces are located at the edges adjacent to the quarry face.
Logical order pervades the layout of the workstations and the restrained colour palette provides a sense of calm while the fixed joinery items anchor, screen and brings unity to the design. Very commendable sustainable solutions underpin the design throughout and are validated by its 4 star green rating.
COLORBOND ® STEEL AWARD
Award: Aurora Operating Facility by HBV Architects
The innovative use of steel is clearly demonstrated throughout the Aurora Operating Facility at all levels. Its extraordinary structure demonstrates how long spans can be achieved with minimal steel sections and material, reducing the amount of materiality. This fits with contemporary imperatives of sustainability. The project achieves internal spans of 38m, and a 12m cantilever for the truck bays, with a modest 460 universal beam.
The design of its structure, with its masts and stays, also demonstrates how steel can have an expressive quality, either up close where the connections are clearly articulated, or from distant highway views, profiled against the sky. Continuing its expressive quality, these structural steel elements suggest the power poles and lines that form the energy company’s core business.
Steel has also been used in a creative way across a whole range of incidental project components such as door frames, security gates, roofing and frames, all of which combine to create a worthy winner of this important award.
HENRY HUNTER TRIENNIAL AWARD (Tasmania award only, does not proceed to national)
Jury: Leigh Woolley
Maria Gigney
Fred Ward
Heritage Architecture: IXL Development by Morris-Nunn and Associates
The IXL Development excels, for many reasons.
It is an outstanding conservation project where the degree of retention far surpasses that generally seen in commercially - driven adaptive reuse projects.
Heritage fabric has been retained and the new work is clearly differentiated from the old, ensuring legibility of the historic building complex and its adaptive reuse.
In contrast to the intact patina of the old, the new work is minimalist, clean and contemporary, carefully inserted so as not to compromise the significance of individual spaces.
As a development it also enhances the civic role of the cove environs, where irreplaceable built fabric has been added to with the engineered elegance of a glass roofed atrium as a public venue. While a considered conservation approach would have been expected for any development of the former public buildings, it is a tribute to the architects that this has not only been honoured, but transformed as a new urban asset through considerable commitment, skill and finesse.
The role of the architect in the procurement process has been crucial to the successful outcome. In being able to carry the idea of providing a contemporary container of the memories of the place and its new public role, RMN and Associates is an appropriate recipient of this year’s Triennial Award named in honour of another prolific civic architect, Henry Hunter.
2008 SWT BLYTHE STUDENT PRIZE
Jury: Cath Hall
Peter Walker
Steven Spizick
Award: Chee Chin Hing, Urban Studio
Chee Chin Hing's scheme is an exploration into providing accommodation and community for emerging artists within the context of a modern city.
The modular solution has been envisaged within a general framework centred around a notion of “vertical lane-ways” creating interconnected social spaces both horizontally and vertically through the building.
It is a considered approach which demonstrates adaptability, given different pragmatic requirements. The notion of lane-way is explored through spatial planning, formal expression and material selection, and reinforces the original diagrammatic ideas.
The jury felt that while there were areas of unrealised potential, particularly with regard to the spatial qualities of the social, creative and living environments, the scheme is commendable given its magnitude and complexity.
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