Islington Hotel

Like many other historic properties, Islington, an 1847 Regency mansion in Hobart, was first converted to a modest bed-and-breakfast in the 1980s. This did not seem to do justice to its value. When the new owners bought over the property, they decided to redress the situation by restoring the old mansion to its former quality while adding new elements to the original building so as to create a grand boutique hotel.

Thus, the main focus of the design for the architects from Morris Nunn + Associates was to respect the dignity of the historical structure while adding new features to it wherever possible; the team explored how contemporary architecture could rejuvenate existing architecture while showing respect to the character of the original heritage building.

Given the importance of Islington as a historic residence, it was also vital that the new elements were visually subservient to the original built form; it was important not to overwhelm the historic elements with the new. Following the design focus, the architects attempted to meld the old and new to create a ‘dialogue’ between the two, so that the totality was greater than the original alone.

As a result, 11 new guest suites have been added within the old property and in the garden, together with a new conservatory/dining area. The six new garden suites extend the existing building fabric and re-orientate the house towards a renovated garden and a view of Mount Wellington, which now becomes the formal visual backdrop for the hotel. The former stables have been reinterpreted in a contemporary way by a new stone cladding and gable roofed pavilion.

To integrate the building design with its surroundings, the opening up of the house to the rear has been discreet. Although the extensions are significant in terms of floor area, they cannot be seen at all from the street or from the original point of entry, where the entrance portico aligns diagonally with a view of the mountain. The natural fall in the land was utilised to create a series of new guest rooms underneath a new ground level reflecting pool, which mirrors the mountain.

In terms of sustainable principles, the embodied energy of the old house was a significant plus, as an initial step towards creating an overall, ongoing energy-efficient solution for the new hotel. Heat created inside the conservatory is now re-circulated inside the high thermal mass of the old house, ducted under all the ground floor rooms, thereby keeping the whole interior of the house at a fairly even temperature naturally.

Another key part of the design is the way the hotel is conceived as a luxurious home in which clients are likely to feel more like house guests than hotel patrons. The principal rooms were given back their initial functions; the original colonial staircase and its defining space restored; and a new atrium lounge space added. The hotel has a large collection of furniture, paintings and associated memorabilia collected by the hotel’s two owners over many decades; these items have become part of the opulent quality of the interior spaces. In addition, the en suites are constructed out of translucent white marble panels in timber lattice frames (to echo shoji screens), and internally the walls are line with imported marble and glass, further enhancing the lavishness of the hotel’s interior.

Overall, the design of the new building elements was conceived to suit the style and quality of the historical elements. New elements, such as the en suites and atrium space, were conceptualised as carefully crafted insertions into the existing fabric. These were deliberately contrasted with the historic building so that guests could easily read the layers of history within the building. –Sophia Silk-Wright/Candice Lim