This project will produce the design for a major University of Tasmania research centre located in the Antarctic. The centre will bring together scientific researchers from various leading institutions to collaborate.
The building is sited on the Hobart waterfront, adjacent to heritage-listed waterfront shed buildings. The overall shed form is a contextual response, mute in character, but foregrounding instead a series of ‘third spaces’ that mediate between the incredibly strict laboratory requirements and the generic shed form. These third spaces are primarily concerned with the internal spaces between laboratories and offices, collaboration spaces, edge spaces between the interior and exterior, and public engagement spaces.
The design was executed by TERROIR Architects (led by UTS Professor of Practice, Gerard Reinmuth) and John Wardle Architects (JWA) in Association. JWA has significant national expertise in the design of university buildings and laboratories, while TERROIR’s place-based design strategies, and their emphasis of the “third space” concept, describe their contribution to the collaboration. The project won numerous state (urban design, public, interiors, education) and national (public building) awards in the Australian Institute of Architects awards program.
