Ancanthe (Lady Franklin Museum), Lenah Valley

The 2019 Tasmanian Architecture Awards provide a glimpse of how architects, owners and developers are evolving and adapting our built environment to meet changing needs.

Heritage is again well represented across all categories, whether the place is on the Tasmanian Heritage Register, a local heritage list, or in a heritage precinct.

In the Urban Design category, the landscaping and amenities works at Ancanthe Park in the Hobart suburb of Lenah Valley has been entered. Lady Franklin’s classical Grecian temple still sits proudly in the park, however the surrounding landscaping and improvements to amenities is a marked contrast to the rudimentary bus shelter and amenity block that has served visitors to the site in the past. “The bus shelter has moved from its original location to create a waiting area inside the park which blends in with its surrounding of the Lady Franklin Museum. The new buildings have been well received and widely used by diverse groups. The form, materials and location compliment the cultural and historical significance of the site and make it a successful addition to the park fabric.”

Past winner MONA has again been nominated for Public Architecture, this time for the addition of Pharos, a pavilion that houses a collection of four major works by James Turrell. “Pharos was designed as a continuation of the museum’s ethos of discovering one’s own journey through the subterranean spaces, constantly punctuated with surprises.”

Home owners can explore plenty of entries that demonstrate good design in adapting old places in the Heritage Architecture Category and the Residential Alterations and Additions Category. Amongst the entries are the Mount Stuart Greehouse where the addition to a 1900 Federation-Italianate home was conceived as a greenhouse to address the owners desire to live “engulfed by a garden”; Trappers and Burt which has transformed a Federation Arts and Crafts home for contemporary living; and examples of letting in light and warmth to old buildings in the French Street Addition, Lime Avenue Residence, Lansdowne Extension and Floodlight House entries.

The creative solutions to adapt industrial spaces for residential use presented in the Bock wareHouse and Last Workshop entries provide more food for thought.

The Awards will be announced on 6 July 2019, but in the interim you can preview all the entries here or for those in Hobart head to Awards exhibition at the Brooke Street Pier (lower level). While you are exploring good design, vote for your favourite entry to be in the running for the People’s Choice Prize.

The Tasmanian Heritage Council is a proud sponsor of the Tasmanian Architecture Awards.

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