Hobart Women’s Shelter
The Hobart Women’s Shelter, also known as the Isabel and Elsie Project, emerged as a critical response to the surge of domestic abuse experienced by women and children during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. Human rights lawyer Cate Sumner and architect Emily Taylor, in collaboration with architect Christopher Clinton, identified an urgent need for long-term housing solutions for women and children displaced by homelessness and domestic violence. Their vision was to create homes that would not only offer shelter but maintain connections with the existing communities of these relocated families. Sumner’s research highlighted the gap in stable crisis accommodation for these vulnerable groups, prompting the development of this much-needed initiative.
With the invaluable support of UTAS students, who conducted a land assessment to develop a comprehensive suitability metric for the project, as well as generous contributions from The Isabel Sims Foundation and The Elise Flood Foundation, Emily and Christopher embarked on a design journey that centred around trauma-informed principles. The Architects’ design is based on the builder’s standard volume home specification with judicious substitutions made to increase the durability and thermal comfort of the homes, resulting in lower running costs and greater design quality at an affordable price.
"Brickworks’ Daniel Robertson bricks in Hawthorn, Cambridge, Overland Pristine, and Tarkine played a crucial role in the design team’s mission to create a safe and supportive environment for individuals in need."
The homes are based on modular designs that can be prefabricated off site and later arranged in various configurations. Thoughtful details throughout the houses, such as a door with an oversized, circular handle crafted by Chris from celery-top pine, offer a warm and tactile welcome of special significance for someone who has not had a permanent or safe home previously. The design also includes elements to help children feel secure, with internal sightlines carefully planned at all levels to reduce anxiety. The team continues to explore how this model can be scaled up to provide these sensitively designed homes on a broader scale.
This range echoes the iconic Hawthorn brick that gives so many of Melbourne’s historic inner city homes their distinct character. The Hawthorn range captures red, tan and brown base clay colours, and are further highlighted with dark and strong blue char and black frit, giving them a rich historic ambience. When combined with Daniel Robertson’s heavy textured face, the result is that no two clay bricks are the same, lending it a truly unique, handmade aesthetic.
Earthy, romantic, and strikingly beautiful. Like the magnificent wide-ranging beauty of Tasmania that inspire this collection, each brick has been created so each double-face is inherently unique in colour and form, but with an extraordinarily natural ‘reclaimed’ feel.
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