Australian architectural firm CiRCA Architecture has designed the Saffire project located in this beautiful Great Oyster Bay in Tasmania, Australia.
The resort is also organic in its relationship to the site. Its form evokes memories of coastal land forms, dunes, waves or sea creatures. The journey moves from the monumental to the more intimate personal spaces of the suites.
CiRCA Architecture
Saffire, image courtesy CiRCA Architecture
Saffire - Conceptual sketch, drawing courtesy CiRCA Architecture
+ Project description by CiRCA Architecture
From its inception, Saffire was imagined as an iconic project to redefine tourism in Tasmania.
The location, when we inherited it, was scarred from its previous use as a disused caravan park so the project became as much about repairing the site and interpreting its unique qualities as it was about creating a tourist destination.
Saffire, image courtesy CiRCA Architecture
With this in mind, we shaped the main building as the end point of a continuing journey, in which views of the Hazards are shielded and revealed and finally presented inside the building as a panoramic overview of Great Oyster Bay.
The resort is also organic in its relationship to the site. Its form evokes memories of coastal land forms, dunes, waves or sea creatures. The journey moves from the monumental to the more intimate personal spaces of the suites.
These are small waves or creatures, arranged on the site as if marking the tidal shoreline. The passage between the units is a metaphor for a beach, the suites moored like small craft run up onto the sand.
Saffire, image courtesy CiRCA Architecture
Saffire, image courtesy CiRCA Architecture
+ About CiRCA Architecture
CiRCA Architecture was formed in 2010 by directors Robert Morris Nunn, Peter Walker & Ganche Chua as an evolution of Morris-Nunn & Associates.
While building on the strong design ethic of MNA this evolution, reflects a subtle change in the direction of the practice to one of a more inclusive, studio based design approach that draws from a wide range of experience, values and expertise and allows a creative inventiveness unique to our office.
CiRCA believes that dialogue and collaboration (both inside & outside the studio) is core to our successful projects. It allows each new design to be examined from first principles, and a unique solution to be forwarded.
A fundamental aim of CiRCA’s work (and that of MNA previously over the years) is to explore ways in which architecture can be more enlightened and socially humane. The practice has created many unique projects that have played an important role in helping to improve the social conditions of communities in which the buildings are built – architecture that brings tangible economic and cultural benefits not only to the imediate users but also to the wider public.
Projects range in scope & scale from large scale public projects such as the IXL Redevelopment or Princess Wharf Precinct through to exclusive hotels, The Henry Jones, Islington & Saffire, and also include residential schemes both large and small, St Canice Apartments and Goulburn St House
CiRCA is based in Hobart, located within the IXL Jam Factory warehouse re-development.
+Project credits / data
Project: Saffire
Location: Great Oyster Bay, Tasmania, Australia
Architect: CiRCA Architecture | http://www.circaarchitecture.com.au/
Photographers: George Apostolidis, Peter Whyte
Client: Saffire Freycinet | http://www.saffire-freycinet.com.au/
Typology: Resort
+ All images and drawings courtesy CiRCA Architecture
