Lady Gowrie Tasmania is a community-owned organisation whose core business is the provision of quality programs to the community that promotes the best outcomes for children, families and early and middle childhood professionals.

This project in South Hobart was a combined development to create a new home for the headquarters which features spaces for training and community events alongside childcare.

We were engaged late in the building stage to address wayfinding and signage. This was a relatively complex building to find your way around, because it is split over a lot different levels as it sits between two major Hobart streets with a significant drop between the two. Picking up on the playful architectural ideas while bringing added personality to the project, we developed a concept that plays on the idea of the building being like Swiss cheese as the building facade is punctuated with circular cutouts, glazing and other details of giant circles. This graphic approach to the building brought back memories of a fun book our Founder, Kate had as a child,  'There’s a mouse about the house’. In this book you could physically take the mouse through the pages discovering nooks and crannies. The safety decal brings in classic children's nursery rhymes featuring mice like Hickory Dickery Dock. The highlight of this project is the curvy pedestrian crossing which mimics the playful yellow handrail that greets you at the entrance.  The language used on signs keeps it plain and conversational — rather than saying 'Level 1' we say 'On this floor', or Downstairs in reference to listing what's on the level below.