Join us for a site tour of two remarkable TERROIR projects. Guided by TERROIR Director Scott Balmforth, your morning will take in a bold timber tower and a rejuvenating threshold where hall meets park.

It's Saturday morning in the heart of Launceston, you're caffeinated, and have enjoyed a delicious pastry for breakfast, now you make your way to the site of the St Luke's Building for a guided tour of two projects with TERROIR director Scott Balmforth.

St.Lukes Health’s new headquarters epitomises a vision of making Tasmania the healthiest island globally. Spanning 5,500 square meters, this project became Tasmania’s most sustainable and carbon-positive office development. It achieved a 40% carbon reduction, making it one of Australia’s pioneering Net Zero Carbon projects. The building hosts office spaces, end-of-trip facilities, a café, and versatile commercial and community areas, all essential to St.Lukes Health’s goal of fostering a healthy community.

The project employed mass timber construction, which successfully removed 7,665 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere – comparable to the emissions from 2,141 cars driving 20,000 km annually. Moreover, a life cycle plan directed the timber configuration, outlining how the structure could be re-engineered and repurposed at the end of its useful life.

On an urban scale, this new high-rise in Launceston offered unique opportunities specific to the city’s topography, where key views of valley buildings were often seen from adjacent ridges. Thus, the form and character of the building’s roof (the ‘fifth elevation’) and its massing as seen from above are understood within this broader urban and topographical context. The building is capped by an outdoor room on the upper two levels complete with a Tasmanian native garden; a landscape in miniature that is experienced in conjunction with the wider Launceston landscape beyond.

Having taken in the sweeping views across Launceston from atop a timber tower, a quick stroll east down Cimitiere Street brings the tour to Albert Hall where a threshold between hall and park rejuvenates both. The building is in the final stages of completion, and an overview of the design will be provided from the exterior of the building. 

Albert Hall is a much-loved venue within Launceston – originally built for the Tasmanian Industrial Exhibition in the late 19th century, the Hall has become the site of many concerts, graduations, and events central to the social and cultural life of the city. The Hall is located at the edge of City Park, an equally important hub in the city, the establishment of which dates back to and is intertwined with the establishment of the city itself. However, despite the significance of both Hall and Park and their proximity, they have never been properly integrated

Albert Hall has suffered from constrained access and capacity issues for many years, requiring some major repairs and reconfiguration. A central part of the renewal project was the opportunity for a new foyer to address both the pragmatic shortcomings of the Hall and the untapped potential of better integrating the building with the park in which it sits. Within stringent heritage constraints borne from the intactness of the Hall’s facades, the project realises a completely new connection between Hall and Park – a new foyer that is neither an extension to Albert Hall nor is a building in City Park. Rather, the project is a shadow between the two, reinforcing the primacy of Hall and Park as significant elements in memory and experience of the city.

The tour concludes in City Park at 10.55am. Perfect, now you have 5 minutes to make your way to your next morning's site tour or an early lunch, after all you're in Launceston an UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Then it's off to don the blunnies and glam winter woolies for an afternoon of storytelling and an evening of celebration.