PRIDE OF PLACE

This Tasmanian practice’s visionary thinking elevates every structure, from an award-winning restoration to an acclaimed Aboriginal standing camp.

SUCH IS THE EFFECT of an interview with Tasmanian architects Poppy Taylor and Mat Hinds of Taylor + Hinds that after 90 minutes I am ready to throw caution to the wind and buy a dilapidated Georgian cottage. I would then give them a blank cheque with the brief to apply their aesthetic of restraint, craftsmanship and rigorous planning.

“Our work speaks to the traditions that we see here. We’re very aware that acknowledging them helps fortify our practice and gives it more meaning,” says Hinds. And I suspect, in order to become a client, there would need to be an alignment of values as is evident in the very best of their work, such as the multiaward winning Bozen’s Cottage in Oatlands. Dissuading the clients from a contemporary extension, they set about unpicking the four-room 1842 Georgian cottage to reveal “an underlying sense of subtlety and delicacy, which is also economic and purposeful”. Its reinvention, through shedding unwanted layers and inserting exquisitely crafted interiors, has given this small project a large, appreciative audience and propelled the practice forward. “We absolutely pour ourselves into everything we do … so it has to be satisfying,” says Taylor.

A couple in life (they have two small children) as well as in the practice, they met at university in Launceston and made a commitment to stay in Tasmania. “I always remember being struck, when we first met, that I’d found a kind of intellectual soul mate,” says Hinds. And that singular understanding allows for a great deal of flex within their creative process.

“Each of us brings our focus at a different time to the stages of the work and we use the other as a foil to check our kind of logic. We are constantly testing the legitimacy of the positioning and being quite critical of the work in order to achieve greater clarity,” says Hinds.

While Tasmania is certainly garnering global attention, which is bringing more projects and more investment at a higher level than in the past, there is still an enormous gap between budgets and fees on the mainland. Hinds acknowledges that “land values don’t yield borrowing capacities for clients” and so a sense of economy is threaded through their work. To their credit it is never apparent. “We distil the projects down primarily through a process of economic thinking that is absolutely a condition of working here,” says Taylor.

However, the emphasis is on the experiential aspect of their work, and not just for residential projects. Denison Rivulet was developed as a prototype for a series of cabins and as such was a testing ground in terms of materials including extensive use of a seductive waxed brass.

One of Australia’s most well-known authors stayed in one of the cabins, later writing to the architects to say that the space was so totally encompassing it enabled him to finish his manuscript. “We made rooms thinking about the kinds of release that can occur in people’s mindfulness about where they are,” explains Hinds.

Material selection is everything for the practice, and it is often a culling process, married with an awareness of the context, which can be the brooding, deep greens of dense forests or wide plains of native grasslands. Always observant, fellow architect Timothy Hill noted that they “use the landscape as a material in the room”.

The story of krakani-lumi (resting place in the palawa kani dialect) – a standing camp within the wukalina/Mt William National Park – highlights a culturally complex project that few would have navigated with the same subtlety and skill of Taylor + Hinds. “It was extremely difficult because we were dealing with the community, who we deeply admire and respect, but who have entrenched suspicions about us as white people but also even deeper suspicions about our profession,” says Hinds. Working with the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania the resulting half-domed timber shelter, charred on the exterior, is regarded as a resounding success, with the AIA Tasmanian Chapter Awards Jury Citation 2018 noting that “the architects have formed a close bond with the palawa community and have created an authentic fusion of ancient culture and modern amenity”.

Even more important to Taylor + Hinds was the response of the Aboriginal community. “At handover, eight figures approached from the coast, including three elders. As they walked towards krakani-lumi, nothing was said and they quietly entered the interiors, deeply considering it and taking in country,” says Taylor. The next morning, they received a text message from an elder that said, “When no words are spoken, you need not ponder. We sense something is coming. You have done us proud.” taylorandhinds.com.au