The change room upgrade at Fahan School is the first completed project for the school following the 2023 masterplan by Bence Mulcahy. Fahan is an all-girls school situated on a heritage listed campus, significant in part for it’s sports field.  With a founding and enduring focus on sport and outdoor education for girls, it is fitting then, Fahan chose as its first capital works project change rooms, amenities and storage. The project is an exercise in doing more with less, physically and programatically. The 1980s brick block building is retained with minor replanning creating private amenities and a greater storage area, and on the exterior a new concrete podium and verandah extension provide enhanced amenity, accessibility and spectating.  Despite it’s banality careful consideration is given to removal and replacement of existing building fabric. Block work is retained internally, and new works are restrained to only where required. Private toilet and shower rooms are provided off the change room and an accessible toilet/shower room off the verandah doubles as a referee change room.  A major element of the new works is a new concrete podium forming a level surface for accessibility and for hosing out. Tinted red it connects to the red brick campus. The podium forms an edge to the sports field. The verandah extends past the building, and delineates the school’s oval from the car park. A fine steel screen forms a layer of privacy for external showers to rinse off wetsuits and gear after a lesson on the beach.  The project is emblematic of the school’s enduring commitment to girls sport and outdoor education. It is a modest project, doing more with less. Adam Gibson Photography

This project is for a renovation and extension to a 1920s cottage in New Town, to better connect the interior of the house with the north-facing rear garden for a couple and their young child.

The cottage is a well-loved home brimming with personal artefacts and a whole lot of charm. With a double fronted facade of white stucco and asymmetrical gables it has an informal and endearing character which we sought to maintain.

The brief was to provide a master-bedroom with ensuite, new kitchen/dining/living room extension with the potential to close off private areas, and reconfigure the rear of the house connect to the garden and bring in daylight.

Demolition of rear lean-to service rooms orientates the dining room to the north-facing garden and maximises daylight to the original interior. A new two-storey rear extension to the east extends the gable roof line.

Plan and section are tightly worked for a playful and surprising interior with stepping floors aligned with terraced courtyard and garden, double storey voids, and a discrete master-bedroom suite secluded in the roof volume.

Interiors open to the luscious garden and are softly shaded by an overhead pergola and external trellised green wall.

Pedder Street Houses’s simple exterior belies it’s surprising and richly spatial interior, creating an intimate setting for family life.

From our client

“Our house had space but rooms were disconnected. We needed direct access to the garden and the ability to be together but not on top of each other.

The extension brings pockets of space, volume, light and connects to the growing garden. It feels warm, welcoming, calm even with a chaotic 5 year old. We can be together but in our own zones.

It’s lofty but intimate. It’s pretty fancy and architectural, but it’s also informal (it’s not a shoes-off house).

We are excited to live in a house that evolves with us.”

Awards

2024 Tasmanian Architecture Awards The Edith Emery Award for Residential Architecture (Alterations and Additions)

Bence Mulcahy team: Shamus Mulcahy, Sophie Bence, Bek Verrier, and Michael Renshaw.

Built by Thylacine Constructions Pty

Aldanmark Consulting Engineers, Pudding Lane Building Surveyors

Photos by Adam Gibson Photography

 

 

 

We are honoured to be awarded the Edith Emery Award for Pedder Street House at the 2024 Tasmanian Architecture Awards for Pedder Street House. 

Jury citation:

“Pedder Street House comprises the significant transformation of a traditional bungalow on the high side of a North Hobart residential street.

The spatially modest additions extend in an origami-like shaping of the envelope, framing external garden areas and accommodating interior spaces of light and prospect. The resultant architectural richness belies the limited budget and conceptually simple extrusion of the existing roof form.

The plan evolves from an offset entry foyer in the existing house. Movement through the short, existing central corridor reveals a sequence of spaces that start to shift in level in response to the opportunities that the site and envelope present.

A generous point of arrival between the dining room, under the existing roof, and the new kitchen creates an informal place of gathering and redirection. With stepped edges, pausing or sitting here is natural yet unexpected.

The folding of floor levels and volume continues through the kitchen to the living space that expands vertically to the full height to the new roof line. Nestled into this section, a master bedroom suite is presented as a pale-toned and more dimly lit refuge from the daily life that operates below.

Pedder Street expertly connects interior spaces to a multileveled garden and overlaps and intersects internal spaces with a level of spatial confidence that is exemplary.”

Bence Mulcahy team: Shamus Mulcahy, Sophie Bence, Bek Verrier, and Michael Renshaw.

Built by Thylacine Constructions Pty

Aldanmark Consulting Engineers, Pudding Lane Building Surveyors

Photos by Adam Gibson Photography

At the 2024 Tasmanian Architecture Awards earlier this year The EmAGN Project Award was presented to the EmAGN members of Bence Mulcahy with H2o architects for the he Friends’ School Redevelopment Project.

We are also chuffed to receive a Commendation for Educational Architecture for the same project. 

EmAGN jury citation:

“The EmAGN Project Award is given to The Friends’ School Redevelopment Project, as testament to the collective efforts of EmAGN members in leadership, collaboration, and architectural expertise.

The initial partnership with H2o Architects provided Bence Mulcahy with the opportunity to contribute to the practice’s first, large-scale education project. Further to this, project procurement following the Development Approval stage, provided the young practice with an opportunity to independently take the project through to completion.

Their collaborative approach led to a design outcome which seamlessly integrated this larger-scale urban development within its historic surroundings. This was evident in the Revell Centre heritage streetscape studies, which demonstrated the team’s dedication to thoughtful intervention given the sensitive context. The use of subtle design gestures exemplifies their commitment to architectural excellence.

The project was led and staffed by a team of emerging architects, including the Practice Director, whose guidance inspired a culture of collaboration and innovation, ensuring the delivery of architectural excellence. The team’s proficiency in collaboration and client engagement were pivotal in shaping the project’s trajectory, and navigated the intricate demands of the heritage site. Meticulous documentation, attention to public realm features, and adept handling of contractual issues further enriched the project’s quality.

The project’s success is a testament to the team’s ingenuity and collaborative spirit, setting a standard for emerging architects in the industry.”

From our client

“The School campuses are not easy sites on which to work. The Friends’ School has many heritage listed buildings with restricted access. Additionally, the School remained in session with roughly 600 students and nearly 100 staff on the campus, so noise awareness, safety of current users (students, staff, and parents), security and continued learning were major considerations which resulted in some constraints throughout the entire construction process of approximately two years. Bence Mulcahy proved to be flexible, organised, and available to accommodate adjustments of the project brief. The School is very pleased with the outcome of the project.”

Bence Mulcahy team: Shamus Mulcahy, Sophie Bence, Hannah Webber, Bek Verrier, Johnny Mckenzie, Michael Renshaw, Dylan Rowbottom, Tim Hurburgh H2o architects

Built by Fairbrother

Gandy and Roberts Engineers, COVA, Lee Tyers Building Surveying, Playstreet Landscape Architects

Photos by Adam Gibson Photography

Located in the quaint ‘shack’ town of Opossum Bay, this project involved transforming an ordinary 1970s brick veneer house into a beautiful holiday home.

The project’s brief was to enhance the home’s connection to the Derwent River and provide a flexible living space.

The arrival through narrow laneways lined with tightly packed shacks all jostling for position, coupled with the house’s mute and modest façade, hides the connection with the Derwent River. However, once you enter, the river is uncompromisingly revealed through full-height glazing that stretches the width of the rear elevation . An expansive deck, running the full width of the house, draws you out to the edge, closer to the view.

It is not until you have been to the edge that you turn back. You then find the kitchen, tucked neatly beside the entry, and the master bedroom suite adjacent the dining, concealed by a sliding plywood screen.

The flexibile plan allows the house to be used in different ways.

If not required for sleeping, the master bedroom suite can be opened fully, increasing the living space.

Another bedroom suite to the rear of the kitchen, behind a sneaky hidden door, opens to a north-facing private courtyard.

Tas Oak and simple detailing provides an honest and contrasting base for the owners’ furniture collection.

Sustainability is imperative as the house operates 100% on harvested rainwater. The new xeriscape landscape requires little watering and maintenance.

Photos by Kate Burton

Located in the inner city, this modest project is the first stage required to transform a 1900s workers’ cottage into a modern family residence.

This project is an example of how an ordinary residence, built modestly and of its time, can be easily and cost-efficiently adapted to serve a new generation of owners’ needs and aspirations without significantly altering the streetscape.

Stage 1 involved the refurbishment of the existing cottage in preparation for the Stage 2 extension.

In addition to simply refurbishing the existing building, the project included a new screen wall which reclaims the front yard as a sunny, semi-private courtyard, and creates a transition zone between the dwelling and the street.

The delicate timber screen wall mediates between privacy, security and openness. It provides a hint of the house’s presence in the streetscape, while filtering the occupants’ activities through its diaphanous skin.

Internal spaces have been stripped back, repaired, and unified with white paint finish. New doors between the veranda and the front room connect the interior and the courtyard. Fixed storage, which draws on the house’s original features, has been inserted into the chimney reveals. New pieces of loose joinery, smaller in scale and finished in Tas Oak, share similar details.

The landscape was designed to require little watering and maintenance.

Photos by Kate Burton

Quality Policy

Our sense of belonging to Tasmania deeply influences our practice and philosophy.

The varied, beautiful landscape of this state, and its strong sense of community, has instilled in us the belief that every project has a responsibility to its physical, social and cultural environment.

Isolation is a virtue, we believe: it fosters creativity and curiosity. It encourages ingenuity, and interest in both ‘here’ and ‘elsewhere’.

This is at the heart of who we are and how we work. We engage both our clients and the broader community. We examine a project’s possibilities and push the boundaries. We create unique and distinctive buildings that make a difference.

We believe architecture should be driven by a spirit of generosity.

We support the architectural community.

We are committed to the continued improvement of our services for our clients as evidenced with our ISO 9001 accreditation.

We want to continue to be involved in community projects where stakeholders have the opportunity to shape their outcomes.

We aim to map the carbon impact of our office.

We strive for gender equity.

We want to improve our cultural awareness of the traditional owners of the land on which we work.

We expand the architectural potential of all projects, do not limit ourselves to particular types of projects, and do not preference large projects over small.

We approach every project with a spirit of collaboration, enthusiasm and curiosity.

We create beautiful, practical and responsible architecture.

Photos by Jonathan Wherrett

We create beautiful, practical and responsible architecture.

We believe great design shapes our engagement with one another and the world around us, and that architecture should be driven by a spirit of generosity. We are interested in global ideas applied to the specific context.

We expand the architectural potential of all projects, do not limit ourselves to particular types of projects, and do not preference large projects over small.

We approach every project with a spirit of collaboration, enthusiasm and curiosity.

Sophie and Shamus’ decision to found Bence Mulcahy grew from their shared commitment to great design and desire to work with clients on projects to be proud of.  We formed Bence Mulcahy in 2014 after first collaborating in 2010, and were joined by Bek Verrier in 2017.

While part of the Liminal Architecture team from 2010-2014, Sophie and Shamus worked on the award-winning Bridgewater LINC and Child and Family Centre, and the Geeveston Child and Family Centres.

Our projects include new houses and extensions to existing houses, heritage renovations, commercial buildings, tourist accommodation, masterplans, and projects in the health and education sectors.

 

Sophie Bence

Sophie’s career kicked off with a crayon drawing of her dream house when she was 5 years old. As she drew house after house, two things became clear: she was obsessed with walk-in wardrobes and with the quest for the perfect house, suited to its people and place.

Sophie graduated from the University of Tasmania in 2003 and took up a position at Terroir, where she worked on a number of highly detailed and tailored projects including the Liverpool Crescent House, and the Cataract Gorge Master Plan and Basin Café. In 2010, Sophie moved to Liminal Studio, and was made an Associate in 2012.

Shamus Mulcahy

Shamus grew up on Tasmania’s North West coast, where the region’s isolated towns – each with a unique identity and fluctuating social, cultural and economic circumstances – had a profound impact on his views on community and architecture.

Shamus graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1997 and spent the early years of his career with Melbourne’s H20 Architects, working on projects including RMIT Textiles Brunswick and the SES Headquarters in South Melbourne.

He returned to Tasmania in 2001 as Associate Director for DesignInc, where he was part of the team behind a number of award- winning projects, including the Woodbridge House and Dominic College Chapel.

In 2008 Shamus moved to London to work as Senior Architect with Denton Corker Marshall on the 2012 London Olympic Village. He returned to Hobart in 2011 as Associate Director of Liminal Architecture.

Bek Verrier

After gaining a reputation for hogging the easel at childcare and spending hours building homes with her Duplo set, it was no surprise when Bek committed to a career in architecture at an early age.  After graduating from UTAS with first class honours in 2011, Bek joined Preston Lane Architects where she worked on a number of award-winning projects. She was named Tasmania’s Emerging Architect in 2016.

Bek’s energy and passion for architecture is infectious.  She co-founded the Tasmanian Women in Architecture Group and is an active member of the Australian Institute of Architects. Her artistic skills extend to ceramics, weaving and garment production and she loves to ‘get on the tools’ renovating, building and painting.  Bek enjoys finding the fun in projects, whether it’s during the process of collaborating with clients, or in creating the delightful small-scale details that give a design that special something