Prestigious design competition for Antarctic Gateway

Spearheading the city’s revival will be European architects Carme Pinos of Spain and Wiel Arets of The Netherlands, who have been invited to judge the Hobart Waterfront International Design Competition. The Competition Brief is to stimulate visionary ideas to improve connections between the city centre and the waterfront of Hobart, an area which played an important role in early Tasmanian Aboriginal life. Pinos and Arets were invited to join the jury because of their groundbreaking work on complex and sensitive projects.

Historic Hobart Waterfront Opportunities

The competition prize pool is 95,000 euro (US$120,000), with 6,000 euro ($7,500) for the winning student entry.

Paul Lennon, Premier of Tasmania, launched the competition saying “Everything will be considered - nothing is off limits. We’re looking for great ideas and world-class concepts for this magnificent site, and we believe our competition will appeal to creative minds everywhere. We are proud of our waterfront and rightly so. It is a world-class blend of maritime heritage, working port and cultural heart.

We are confident the design competition will create significant interest among leading international architects, planners and engineers and will generate the sort of innovative thinking that led to the creation of the Sydney Opera House. The creative challenge is to embrace the area’s rich history and design a contemporary cultural hub to revitalise the space. Entrants will need to protect and enhance what is uniquely Tasmanian about the waterfront while letting their imaginations soar.”

The Hobart Waterfront International Design Competition closes on 1 December 2006 and all entries will be put on public display in January and February 2007. For the Competition Brief and further information, see www.hwidc.tas.gov.au.