LIMINAL Studio completed the eye-catching space dedicated to the arts at The Hedberg in Hobart, Australia.

Located in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, The Hedberg vision is to present a culturally significant performing and creative arts destination that galvanises the creative heart of Hobart and fuels Tasmania’s cultural offering in a global and contemporary context.

In 2013, Hobart-based LIMINAL Architecture, with Singapore-based WOHA, were awarded the internationally competitive bid to deliver this culturally significant building. The result is a cultural place of ceremony, merging ancient traditions with modern innovations.

The development includes professional music and performance hubs, world-class performance venues, a new home for the Conservatorium of Music, creative workshop laboratories, integration of the two-storey heritage-listed Hedberg Garage, universal accessibility to all levels of the historic Theatre Royal for the first time and cutting-edge technologies facilitating local and global exchange.

The Hedberg could not have happened anywhere else or on any other site. The building is informed by its cultural and community contexts. The design encapsulates a people-focused intimacy, relevancy and scale and celebrates the role the built environment plays in deepening an understanding of place that inspires cultural and creative immersion for its users, practitioners, performers, educators, producers, musicians, students, visitors and patrons. It presents, a festival in a building.

The Hedberg tells stories of the past, overlaid with aspirations for the future. The design strategy evokes a sense of the theatrical activities inside. The external expression is influenced by the minimalist and dancing forms in contemporary music notation. The cladding suggests a shimmering theatrical curtain being pulled open to reveal the warmth within. The exterior sparkle takes its cue from the opalescence of Tasmanian abalone shells, traditionally used to carry fire, acknowledging the significance of fire in cultural exchange and the role it continues to play as the original natural ‘theatre’ for storytelling.

Design: LIMINAL Studio
Photography: Natasha Mulhall, Dianna Snape, Patrick Bingham-Hall