The University of Tasmania Forestry Building has won the Building Technology category in the 2024 WAFX Prizes, awarded by organisers of the World Architecture Festival. Source: Timberbiz
In all, 33 future projects are recognised in the WAFX Prizes. An overall winner will be announced at WAF in Singapore between 6 and 8 November, along with the winners of the WAF Awards.
The Woods Bagot project consists of the restoration and redevelopment of the former Forestry Building in Hobart CBD: the centrepiece of University of Tasmania’s Southern Campus Transformation.
The site comprises two heritage-listed 1920s redbrick warehouses, a former 1980s warehouse showroom and a 22-metre dome-shaped conservatory designed by Morris-Nunn and Associates in 1997.
The project team is reimagining the site as an inner-city hub for learning, research and collaboration through a highly connected campus that unifies the disparate built elements onsite with integrated landscape, through-block connections and publicly accessible thoroughfares.
Targeting 40% less embodied carbon than comparable buildings, the project team has adopted a comprehensively circular strategy to building materials. This means material recovery where possible; the elimination of carbon-intensive materials; and the introduction of only sustainable materials.
New materials have been selected for their provenance and sustainability, from the timber studwork to the recycled-content carpets, to the bio-based wall linings. Once complete, the Forestry Building will be the largest example of a commercial use of hempcrete in Australia.
Celebrating the confluence of architecture and landscape, the design team will reinstate the indoor urban forest previously housed beneath the glass dome, creating a verdant focal point for the campus that connects its interstitial spaces.
The project is slated for completion towards the end of 2025.
