Elizabeth Street Pier Services Building, Hobart – Terroir
As architects we engage in acts of illusion and distraction. We draw the viewers attention to areas we deem suitable for public notice, whilst hiding the more mundane elements of our built environment away. Over at Terroir Architects, their brief was to provide a new enclosure to a services building, and rather than hiding it, decided to celebrate and draw attention to its location.
The buildings success lies in its strong approach to identity and belonging. It isn’t hiding its presence, but rather drawing overt attention to it, and itself becoming an identifiable part of the urban fabric.
“We engaged to upgrade facilities on Hobart’s Franklin Wharf for the Sullivans Cove Waterfront Authority. The project was led by Melbourne-based landscape architecture practice Oculus. Part of this larger project was the modification to the existing Services Building in the forecourt to the Elizabeth Street Pier.
The task was to “cut and shut” an existing services building while at the same time increasing pedestrian amenity along the water’s edge.
An identifiably new folded steel element painted in an identifiably Tasmanian green colour was placed over the existing building to provide a new identity to the mundane services enclosure with relatively minimal means.
The street end is complimented with a continuation of the steel element which provides shelter over existing public services such as bicycle parking, vending machine and general waiting space”, Terroir Architects
