Hobart: Each building is a hesitant

Long time ago there is a small city that sits within mountain and sea. It is so beautiful so that mountain is in your sight everywhere you go, this even happens to the city center. Citizens are dancing on the public space chess table, or spending the whole morning or afternoon in the outdoor area of the pub, sipping the infamous Cascade Lagar, wandering around the street, stepping onto historical brick pavement, connecting with enclosed heritage buildings. It is almost like a Harry Potter world. I would like to think that it is one of the best example of an idyll. This city is Hobart.

Here, heritage is not wasted artefact. Each building is a hesitant, a careful negotiation between tradition and emerging desires / functional requirement, they are carefully reappropriated as jewellery workshop, wool factory, cafes and shops. There is depth in the making of the city in contrast to the shamelessness of utilitarian efficiency.

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Woollahra House

This weekend, an old friend of mine invited me to visit the construction site of her future home in Woollahra and take some photos. She is a material supplier and she want to use her brick and tile for her future home. She has engaged with an interior designer to make sure they are delivered in a thoughtful way. When I was in her site, there are several moments that strike me the most. The junction between the skylight and the brick wall, I was amazed of how it was executed as perfect clean lines and how the light dances upon the brick wall, slowly revealing its textures. The perception of the depth of space, almost reminds one of Mies Van Der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. Openings in brick wall frames the space, adding extra layers to the eye, the space is perceived to move forward and backward at the same time. The bespoke feature ceiling in an inverted arch form, the kind of organic gesture usually employed in public space making. It is very interesting to see how it was made for

Bedtime Architectural Stories

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