Fish349 Extension

It was hardly a case of terra incognita when TERROIR came to work on this latest extension of Fish349, midway along North Hobart’s popular commercial strip. In 2006, the firm transformed a grocery store – a 1970s extension in an original Georgian heritage building – into a contemporary seafood café. And so this time around, when invited to turn an adjoining car park into a Function Room, TERROIR were on familiar territory.

But familiarity aside, the architects were still presented with the challenge of adding to an already ‘complete space’ – one that TERROIR knew to be complete, because they created it as such. Simply enlarging the internal space would have destroyed the individual identity of the dining room, yet ideally, this newest addition still needed to have some sense of synergy with the 2006 features. The solution was found in the location of this new offshoot – on the ground floor of the corner site, but running along a quieter side-street than the existing dining room. TERROIR developed the notion of an ‘internalised space’: the extension would have a muted, ‘anonymous’ external presence, struggling to contain the vibrant interior barely contained within. The external walls – two in pre-cast concrete and two existing walls – depict a simple fractured concept, broken through with ‘shards’ of window and skylight. The simplicity and quick construction of these outside features allowed TERROIR to spend much more of its tight budget (and even tighter window of time: 165 days from start to finish; 45 days for onsite construction) on creating a truly ‘explosive’ interior.

Inside, it seems as though pale, paper-thin wall linings have been folded and crimped to fit within the rigid boundaries of a structural space pushed to the point of bursting at the seams. This internal envelope is formed by individual panels of lime-washed plywood, which are strategically arranged in a ‘shattering’ pattern and separated by expressed panel joints. A clever nod to the restaurant’s origamistyle logo (revisited by line markings on the outside of the main building), the ‘folded’ plywood also frames and diffuses light sources in the Function Room, and serves as an ingenious distraction from ceiling-mounted utilities, like the projector, which displays onto a painted screen on the rear wall. Dark stained plywood flooring flows through from the existing dining room, and laps up the rear wall of the new interior, collecting all the miscellaneous elements into a single consolidated entity.

Lightweight plywood is the surprise ‘green’ heavyweight in TERROIR’s design: cost-effective and manufactured in an environmentally sustainable manner, it sets the tone for an eco- and budget-conscious fitout. Two of the internal walls were also modelled from plywood, while two existing external walls took on a double role as internal walls, finishing the ‘box’, and literally halving the need for new structural materials. TERROIR also selected high thermal mass products and Low-E coated glazing for the windows and skylights, resulting in a highly efficient external envelope, and an internal space that requires minimal mechanical ventilation or air conditioning. The ‘new’ materials in this project are, therefore, just as pragmatic and subtle as the external façade, yet at the same time just as dynamic and visually distinctive as the interior. This firm has made itself known as one that excels in creating difficult projects for premium locations, often on a less-than premium time scale and budget. This latest addition to Fish349 is proof enough of that: a TERROIR flagpole planted firmly in this corner of downtown North Hobart. By integrating the site, its existing structures, its natural and urban context, and its overall purpose, to produce that certain je ne sais quoi that the French call ‘terroir. +

1 + 2 The jagged lines of the exterior are continued into the interior, where the majority of the architects' attention, and the client's budget, was spent. 3 Ceiling panels and shatter-pattern panels disguise utilities like the projector. 3 The lime-washed plywood panel forms give the function room an eco-friendly material palette, and in places save on materials or serve the purpose of drawing focus to points of activity.

PHOTOGRAPHY by Jonathan Wherrett