Deconstruction in Tasmanian New Heritage Architecture

The literary-philosophical practice of deconstruction has suffered abuse in architectural discourse for decades. Popularised interpretations of metaphor-heavy and art-referencing iconic architecture have undermined the potential of an exercise that holds potential for much insight. This paper looks to recover some of that potential burnt out in flagrant forms and beaten down in opaque missives of discursive deliria. Deconstruction is not, however, the object under consideration, but rather the device through which it operates. The object of this paper is Architecture built onto and into existing Heritage fabric. The Architecture — Captain Kelly’s Cottage (2018) by John Wardle Architects; Bozen’s Cottage (2019) by Taylor and Hinds; and Install House (2019) by Partners Hill — is all found on the small island of Tasmania. These powerful works are celebrated for their object status and their adroit condensations of peoples and contexts, as well as the historical and the contemporary. They are given gravity by a weight of facts and accounts of history, highlighted by age-value remnants and exquisitely crafted interventions. Captain Kelly’s Cottage, Bozen’s Cottage, and Install House are positioned in this paper as manifesting deconstruction. This paper does not claim that their architects designed with deconstruction in mind, rather that the intrinsic parameters of their architectural complexes implicate aporia, and that the interventions can be read to develop the potentials these aporia offer. Further, this paper suggests the practice of Heritage-related Architecture as translation and conversions that inherently affords potential for deconstruction in design and interpretation. This paper, thus, reframes deconstruction in Architecture, establishing a more appropriate and pertinent location in discourse on Heritage-related work. At the same time, it offers its readers a translation of deconstruction into Architecture theory-criticism as material construction.