Two centuries of history, architecture and people.
This project was a sensitive renovation of a heritage-listed house and gardens in northern Tasmania that revealed and built upon the home’s original workmanship, celebrating the history of its previous owners and caretakers.
Built in 1843 on nine acres of East Launceston land, Claremont is one of Australia’s oldest examples of the pisé building technique, with clay dug from the property’s cellar used to construct the pisé walls.
Material conservation was a key driver for this project. The restoration of the house’s original celery top hardwood timber balustrades and decorative verandah trims was a commitment made by the owners, builders and architect early in the design process. Our clients worked closely with the builder to strip, patch and restore the original fretwork, adding another layer to the history of the building.
The quintessential verandah - reimagined.
Claremont’s original verandah was first added on to the home’s north west facade in the early 1900s, and had since lived many lives, having been enclosed, then partially opened up, partially built in, slept in, and eventually falling into disuse. Our design sought to respond to the constantly fluctuating and never-ending use of the space with something unoriginal: redesigning another built-in verandah.
By retaining the existing gutter line of the verandah flanking the formal eastern side of the house, we created a new habitable public edge incorporating a living and dining room, kitchen and bathroom, while connecting the existing bedrooms deep in the plan to light, the garden and the street.
A story of custodianship.
Claremont has a long and storied history. Its original custodians, the Gunn family, founded an integrated building business in the 1800s, later becoming the largest millers of hardwood in the southern hemisphere.
Our approach to this project reflected the reverence of the property’s current custodians towards its previous caretakers. We hope that the stories of the people who have called Claremont home over the past two centuries will live on through the restoration of this project.
