Adaptive reuse projects dominate 2015 Tasmanian Architecture Awards

Projects involving the adaptive reuse of heritage and other older buildings are the big winners at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2015 Tasmanian Architecture Awards, announced in the Huon Valley on Saturday night.

Two residential adaptations of historical sites dominated the Heritage and Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions) categories.

#thebarnTas, a small horse stable built circa 1829, has been given new life by architects’ workbylizandalex and rewarded with the Roy Sharrington Award for Heritage and an Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions).

‘As a family home, #thebarnTAS flourishes because of its constraints rather than despite them. It is a home full of character and surprise, which celebrates the original envelope and atmosphere of the stable,’ the jury noted.

The heritage-listed house, Art & Craft, received the Tasmanian Chapter Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions) along with an Award for Heritage for 1 + 2 Architecture’s masterful extension for the 1908 property.

‘The restoration, together with changes required to adapt the house to the needs of a 21st century family, have been carried out with great sensitivity and consummate skill on the part of the designers and the craftspeople,’ the jury said.

New Town Road House by Core Collective, which involved reconfiguring a fish and chips shop into a two-bedroom unit, won the Peter Willmott Award for Small Project Architecture, with the jury saying it is ‘as creative in its conception as in its execution, and an exemplar for small urban housing in Tasmania’.

Adaptive reuse also featured prominently in the Commercial Architecture category, with the redevelopment of the old Mercury Press Hall by Core Collective and Cumulus Studio’s transformation of Pumphouse Point at Lake St Clair into a tourism development both receiving Awards.

Projects that have enriched communities and reinvigorated public spaces are among the other major award winners, with Brooke Street Pier by Circa Morris-Nunn picking up the third Award in the Commercial Architecture category. The project was described by the jury as ‘enlivening Hobart’s waterfront’.