The Stony Rise Road Redevelopment will see the consolidation and overhaul of existing Fairbrother joinery workshops and office spaces.
Fairbrother is a national commercial and industrial construction, joinery, and facilities management company. The business has been steadily expanding over the past 50 years with locations throughout Tasmania and Regional Victoria. To meet the demands of the growing business, NH was asked to oversee the redevelopment of their facilities at Stony Rise Road.
The redevelopment will see the addition of approximately 1200m2 of new office space and 4400m2 of fabrication facilities and will be staged to allow the business operations to continue during construction. We’ve retained elements of the existing built fabric wherever possible. The new building and development will be constructed from structural timber, a stark contrast to the industrial warehouse designs typical in this type of workshop building.
The site is located in Quoiba, an industrial suburb just outside of Devonport (Limilinaturi), Tasmania on Palawa Country. It’s very close to the Mersey River and has immediate access to Mersey Vale Memorial Parklands. Our concept embeds the new work and social spaces into the natural landscape, giving the whole team equal access to the diverse ecologies of Northern Tasmania and the Bass Strait.
Our design seeks to reflect the Fairbrother’s company values and history, absorbing the brand identity into the finishes and form of the new buildings. The sawtooth roof will provide enough solar energy to serve the power demand of the factory and office facilities. We have tried to bring in natural light and softer materials wherever possible, creating a warmer domestic feel and sense of scale to the office spaces. Likewise, we have connected the facilities to the surrounding natural environment and in response to staff requests for more communal social spaces, we have designed a central courtyard with native landscaping. The courtyard will be protected from the harsher natural elements by the boundaries of the building.
It was also important to us to facilitate connections between the office, workshop, and social spaces, acknowledging the various different types of work that occur on the site. The final built outcome will celebrate the integration of construction, corporate offices, and community, expressing pride in this unique place and the many people that occupy it.
The Stony Rise Road Redevelopment furthers NH’s growing domestic and international presence. This project was featured in part of our exhibition ‘Brand New’, exploring the evolution of our architectural design process through a series of six projects, both recently completed and in mid-flight. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to delve into the architectural strategies, tactics, and tools we use to tackle these large-scale legacy projects.
You can read more about our ‘Brand New’ Exhibition here.
