24/07/2026
HERITAGE + CONTINUITY
Our approach to heritage begins by understanding and respecting the stories that came before, revealing that narrative and responding to this through a contemporary lens. Creating new chapters on Country while acknowledging and respecting the past, creating a cultural continuum.
In designing the Hedberg, conceived in collaboration with WOHA Architects, preservation wasn't about recreating or mimicking the past.
Our approach to site storytelling through methods of conservation, reuse, interpretation, and revelation.
Not ignoring what was once there, but letting it speak alongside what's new.
The Hedberg won the Roy Sharrington Smith Award for Heritage at the 2022 Tasmanian Architecture Awards as well as many National and International accolades.
Image 1: Through our interlocking design of the concrete panels, we were able to insert lower-value recycled materials from the archaeological dig into the external facade providing activating the facade at human scale level - reinterpreting materiality.
Image 2: What was once the external wall of the heritage-listed Theatre Royal, previously cluttered with a utilitarian metal sheeted stairwell and mechanical units that hung off the wall facing a carpark, is now restored. Breathing space and opportunities for the stories of the past to infiltrate the new foyers have been created. The heritage wall is celebrated by enabling its expression to be uninterrupted across the three levels of foyers.
Image 3: Recycled bricks from the site embedded in the Foyer concrete finish, tracing the footprints of the site’s habitation of the past.
Join our co-director Peta Heffernan, for the session ‘Demystifying Your Heritage Toolkit’, to hear more about our approach, along with esteemed heritage experts in the built environment for the AIA Heritage Series – a professional development program exploring and integrating heritage processes, heritage conservation, heritage services and the lifecycle of a project, and demystifying your heritage toolkit
Register here: https://lnkd.in/gbsKnr_Z
📷 Natasha Mulhall Photography
Australian Institute of Architects