Vines and vistas, framed by shipping containers.
Wind north along Tasmania’s scenic east coast and you’ll skid to a stop at Cherry Tree lookout. The view here is irresistible: a corridor of eucalyptus parts to reveal the first glimpse of Freycinet Peninsula’s iconic granite mountains, jutting above Moulting Lagoon. And there, amidst the lush grass and grapevines, you’ll find Devil’s Corner’s rectangular forms, crafted from refurbished shipping containers.
Devil’s Corner is one of Tasmania’s largest vineyards. This project for Brown Brothers comprises a lookout, cellar door and local food market. It seeks to make the most of the iconic view for road-tripping tourists and their rumbling tummies.
CLIENT
Brown Family Wine Group
IMAGES
Tanja Milbourne, Sixth Law
LAND OF
Oyster Bay Tribe
COLLABORATORS
Aldanmark
Castellan Consulting
Anstie Constructions
Simon Currant
David Qoun & Associates
RED Sustainability Consultants
AWARDS
Through curated, framed views, visitors feast their eyes on the fruitful Devil’s Corner landscape. The dynamic lookout treats the landscape’s subtleties like you would a fine wine - something to revere, understand and appreciate.
In the lookout, three distinct spaces reference different landscape views. The first angled view focuses on the ‘sky’, with a cranked lookout made from two cut and reassembled containers. The next, a balcony looking out to the ‘horizon’, acts as a bridge with one side of the container cut out. And then, the ‘tower’: two containers end on end, with a winding steel plate stair inside, offer an elevated and expansive perspective across each compass point and the bay.
If views had a sommelier...
A response shaped by rural remoteness.
Whilst the site had its constraints, we were pleased to turn them to our advantage. Without much other development in the area, we undertook collaborative tourism research to prove the project’s financial viability. This meant we could build on the initial brief to introduce the lookout aspect, taking full advantage of both views and passing tourists. To fit a limited budget, our design opted for prefabricated structures and a limited material palette as a contemporary take on an agrarian aesthetic.
We’re proud that the result is not only commercially successful, but also well-loved by tourists as an attraction in its own right.
Our loose collection of projecting and intersecting timber-clad shipping containers is a modern interpretation of a traditional rural settlement. The structures offer a semi-sheltered courtyard to house the expanded cellar door and local, seasonal food market. It’s a space where you can sip award-winning wine as you gaze out to the Hazards mountain range beyond.
We chose to repurpose shipping containers - 10 in all - for their easily transportable, modular size, well-suited to this remote location. Steel also offered structural integrity and inherent flexibility.
In our design, we deliberately reversed the typical aesthetic treatment of steel. Rather than the usual cladding, an internal steel skin reveals the construction’s raw, industrial nature. Then, external timber cladding plays on the rural and agricultural site qualities.
Drink it in.
