Young Designers Rewarded for Hobart Vision

Two young designers have each won $500 for their visionary schemes for the Hobart CBD, showcased as part of the Hidden Hobart self-guided architectural tour over the last two weeks. Entrants in the ideas competition Hidden Hobart: People With A City In Mind, included architecture students and recent graduates. They were asked to submit designs in response to themes of landscape, movement, city life and visual environment raised by Gehl Architects in their report Hobart: A City With People in Mind.

‘Healing Spaces’ by final year UTAS architecture student, Masako Morita, was judged the winner by the expert panel of Karen Davis, Tasmanian President of the Australian Institute of Architects, Neil Noye, Hobart City Council Director of Development and Environmental Services and Peter Poulet, State Architect.

According to the jury panel, Masako’s proposition ‘features a pocket park on the edge of a multi-storey car park adjacent to the Royal Hobart Hospital to provide a healing space for people including visitors of the hospital. The creation of intimate quality spaces for people to rest and contemplate encourages occupation in the city through ‘inviting’ people to stay. The focus on greening spaces also addresses a current shortage of parks in the heart of the CBD and provides a more interesting and enjoyable experience for visitors of the hospital and the city alike. The project is also quite economical and thus is identified as not only a whimsical yet futurist proposal but also achievable in the short term.’

‘Masako has progressed the recommendations of the Gehl Architects report through an integrated response that addresses the natural landscape, visual environment and function of Hobart in a built form that is created primarily for people’ the jury added.

‘SHEDworking’ by recent UTAS architectural graduate Ryan Cawthorn was the People’s Choice Prize winner with his vision featuring a reworking of the Macquarie Shed Number One and an extensive adaption of the Hobart waterfront to create a new public space that engaged with both the rich heritage fabric and new architecture of the precinct.

Comments from the public when voting for this project included:
‘Everyone can use and lots of space’: Ashton Oates, 11, Ranelagh
‘Unobtrusive area that is able to be used by the public to observe Hobart’s history and sustainability for future generations’: Rod Coulson, 58, Huonville
‘Relaxed, shared experiences in “welcoming places” are the best memories’: Cheryl Jones, 53, Crabtree

An additional $500 was won in a random draw of the votes by ‘Team S’ from the Goulburn Street Primary School, who voted for the project ‘Copenhagan can do it, why can’t Hobart?’ by UTAS graduate Andrew Kerr, which compared the similarities in the cultures of Copenhagen and Hobart.
‘You will be healthy and fit everyday. If you ride your bike you will get used to it. You don’t waste money on cars’ was the response to the proposition by the school team.

Two additional exhibition projects ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Community Ecology’ were shortlisted by the jury for special mention.

‘Back to the Future’, by architecture graduate Keith Westbrook, reflects on the historical innovation of a city that once established the first electric tramway system in the southern hemisphere. The entry, which focuses on the movement and visual environment recommendations of the Gehl report, is proposed as a reminder of the inventive potential of our small city and flags the current contemplation around the future of transport in the CBD as an opportunity to once again be an innovator. The jury agreed that this observation is the perfect starting point for such a discussion on the much needed improvement of Hobart’s public transport system and that any future development in this area should be undertaken in the most sustainable way possible.

Back to the Future by Keith Westbrook

Community Ecology by Stuart Muir Wilson

‘Community Ecology’, by fourth year Master of Architecture student Stuart Muir Wilson, also proposed an integrated approach to addressing the recommendations of the ‘Hobart: A City with People in Mind’ report through intertwining ecology, functional transport and place-making within the heart of the CBD. The project intends to leverage the established sense of community at the Melville Street CBD Farmers Market through a series of community buildings, apartments and small commercial produce outlets to encourage people back into the city. The jury noted the inventiveness of integrating the vertical mixed-use solution with an ecological element and the holistically sustainable and logical solution of encouraging a positive form of 24 hour activity.

Hidden Hobart: People With a City in Mind was an ideas competition that called for submissions from Tasmania’s young designers for their visions for the future of the Hobart CBD based on themes from the Gehl Report. From the seventeen entries that were received, ten projects were chosen for a shop-front exhibition around the Hobart CBD that invited both members of the public and a panel of judges to each pick the project that they believed was the best vision for the city. This was an initiative of the Australian Institute of Architects with financial support from the Hobart City Council to help celebrate Hobart Architecture Week.

The Australian Institute of Architects is the peak body for the architectural profession, representing more than 10,000 members across Australia and overseas. The Institute actively works to improve the quality of our built environment by promoting quality, responsible and sustainable design.
Visit the Institute at architecture.com.au.