Tasmanian timber is a thing of beauty.

Set in Hobart’s outer suburb of Midway Point sits the newly designed and renovated Lady Gowrie Early Learning Centre. Originally built in the 1970s, the red-orange brick building required an update to deinstitutionalize the space. The brief was to create an atmosphere that would ease the anxieties of children and parents, fostering an environment that’s equal parts inviting and inspiring. Calling on the expertise of Tasmanian architecture practice Cumulus Studio, the centre has been reimagined establishing a strong connection to the natural environment through design and material selection. Grounded in principles of sustainable design, the centre challenges the existing model of Australia’s child care centres and places Tasmanian Oak at the fore.

Emerging architects Liz Walsh and Alex Nielsen have been busy launching their newly formed lutruwita/Hobart practice, SO:Architecture. Taking a nontraditional approach, SO:Architecture offers a highly collaborative design process, placing value on slow architecture and welcoming clients to challenge the brief to help understand and reveal opportunities within the design process. Using this method in their first project completed under the newly formed studio, Harriet’s House embodied the thought, collaboration, care, and high level of craft the project demanded to achieve its award-winning results. Located in Launceston on the lands of the Stoney Creek Nation, Tasmania, the extension to the heritage-listed Georgian cottage seamlessly combines two materials; locally sourced brick and Tasmanian Timber, strategically linking the project to place and the state’s proud manufacturing history.

Melbourne architect Wilko Doehring has always held a long appreciation for modernist architecture. Born in Germany, his admiration for the Bauhaus movement translated to a love for Australia’s adaptation of mid-century architecture. So, when a light-filled property in Melbourne’s Beaumaris neighbourhood came onto the market, he and his wife acted quickly to secure one of its prized mid-century dwellings. As with many homes in this suburb, the three-bedroom house was compact, yet meticulously designed for maximum efficiency. Stripping the home to its core without compromising the integrity of its original charms, the couple were pleased to uncover Tasmanian Oak as the feature timber chosen nearly seventy years prior.

Studio ZAWA is a Sydney-based architecture studio formed by architects Brian Zulaikha and Colebee Wright. With a focus on creating residential projects that boast texture, quality and craftsmanship, their latest project, Darling Point Apartment, fulfills this ethos- and then some. With a lifetime of travels and treasures to inform the brief for the reconfiguration of the 60s era apartment, a unique yet carefully restrained palette of materials makes up the sleek interior that reflect some of the client’s most cherished moments.