Woods Bagot’s redevelopment of the University of Tasmania Forestry Building has taken out the top award for the “Future Project: Education” category at World Architecture Festival in Singapore.

Woods Bagot Director Bruno Mendes presented the project to an audience of industry peers and an esteemed jury of the industry’s power players from around the globe.

“From the beginning, our team moved way from thinking about our personal architectural ambitions, and instead considered what legacy we wanted this project to leave behind,” says Mendes.

“It wasn’t about creating an ego building; less is more on this project. Our role was to curate what was already there. Working with found conditions, we have strived to emphasise the existing and let that drive the conceptual direction of the new.”

Mendes added the true success of the masterplanning lies in the collection of rich and interstitial spaces that address the diverse needs of the university and broader community.

“We’re creating a campus, not a building, so we wanted to think about the interstitial, the relationship between zones and the quality of the spaces that you move through between buildings.”

A porous ground plane is open to the public and gives back to the Hobart community through opportunities for incidental connection.

“We created clear navigation through the site, carving out spaces that create opportunities for the interaction of diverse demographics,” Mendes says.

Mendes adds the team were able to retain 60 percent of what was already existing on site. What was added was rigorously interrogated and scrutinised for its necessity, its sustainability, and its reusability and end of life.

“Dematerialisation, longevity, adaptability, flexibility and disassembly were major factors that informed our process,” says Mendes.

“It’s not just about the upfront carbon; we need to consider the embodied carbon, the operational emissions, tracking output from first day of construction through to its eventual removal at end of life.”

The University of Tasmania is the top university in the world for climate action, and this ethos was critical for guiding the founding principles for the project.

“It’s a testament to our client, the University of Tasmania, who really drove the sustainability agenda,” says Mendes.

“This project is what it is because of the Vice Chancellor’s indefatigable commitment to the best environmental outcomes.”

Woods Bagot Director and Global Education Sector Leader Sarah Ball says the Forestry campus responds to contemporary ways of learning, with highly attuned and flexible infrastructure to support the university’s future evolution.

“Our design supports the university’s academic ethos by creating flexible pedagogical environments that support collaboration and quiet focus respectively, alongside vibrant civic spaces underscored by a connection to place,” says Ball.

“Diversity, biophilia, visual interest, and spatial quality are engineered to support learning outcomes and user wellbeing, creating a hub for learning, research and collaboration for student, staff and community.

“It’s a huge honour and a great achievement to be recognised on a global stage within a league of the most innovative and future-focused education projects.”

As an example of mass timber construction, adaptive reuse, and the largest commercial use of hempcrete in Australia, the new campus combines a number of innovative and experimental approaches to resilient and sustainable design while restoring and reviving an iconic piece of local heritage.

The Education category win marks the second award the project has taken home from the World Architecture Festival this year. The Forestry Building also received the WAFX Award for Building Technology, demonstrating industry-leading design solutions to today’s most pertinent social and environmental issues.

Image: University of Tasmania/Woods Bagot

Clémence Carayol

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