Macquarie Wharf No. 1

Perched in Hobart’s Sullivan Cove, the MAC1 hotel is a monument to the city’s nautical history. The four story timber structure repurposes the wharf’s warehouse, whilst preserving its aesthetic origin. Built simply with raw materials, the hotel mimics the framework of traditional warehouses with a touch of innovative modern form. The balconies circling the structure invoke a sense of refined rusticity to the hotel front, whilst also establishing the waterfront building as a contemporary architectural project. The stratified structure of the building will generate depth and graded dimension as the timber weathers, creating a sense of robustness coherent with the surrounding wharf. A balanced combination of raw structural history and modern architectural design has formed a state-of-the-art accommodation that pays tribute to the waterfront’s historic beginnings.