Pride Of Place

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

- Karen McCartney

MAT HINDS AND POPPY TAYLOR OF TAYLOR + HINDS WERE PHOTOGRAPHED ON THE SITE OF AN ADAPTIVE REUSE PROJECT IN AN INNER-CITY HERITAGE-LISTED COFFIN FACTORY IN HOBART.

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.