Lady Gowrie Tasmania Integrated Centre for Children & Families
This project responds to an integrated model of child care, education and community, creating flexible indoor and outdoor play spaces and blurring the boundaries of age to create a play terrain across an inner-city industrial site. The project rehabilitated a brownfield site previously occupied by a mechanics workshop, of which the raw materiality, utilitarian scale and residual automotive insignia has been playfully incorporated into the final design.
Various functions are collected around the vertical circulation and breakout spaces, encouraging informal encounters and fostering learning opportunities for both children and adults. Formally, this is characterised by voids that allow views and passive observation, provide changing light conditions and incorporate tiered seating and flexible working environments. The entry, conceived as an elevated timber volume cantilevered over a concrete core, was designed to weather with time and, like the warehouse before, to be robust enough to proudly wear its use.
Architects
Practice Team
Director and principal architect – Peter Walker
Director and principal architect – Todd Henderson
Architect – Elizabeth Walsh
Architect – Chris Roberts
Architect – Andrew Geeves
Interior designer – Samantha Beavis
Designer – Jo Churchill
Consultants
Builder – Fairbrother
Building surveyor – Green Building Surveying
Landscape consultant – Playstreet
Structural, civil and hydraulic engineers – Aldanmark Consulting Engineers
Mechanical and electrical engineers – TBS Engineering
ESD consultant – RED Energy Consultants
Traffic engineers – pitt&sherry
Artwork – Judith Abell
Graphic design – Futago
Photographer – Nina Hamilton
Categories
Commercial Architecture | Education | Heritage | Interior Architecture | Public Architecture | Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations & Additions) | Residential Architecture – Houses (New) | Small Project Architecture