Harriet's House

Launceston, Tasmania

Harriet's House is a single vaulted room added behind an 1830s heritage-listed Georgian cottage in central Launceston, built for the architectural historian Harriet Edquist and named after her. The addition is 50 square metres and replaced a 1980s rear wing, of which only a Victorian-era brick fireplace was kept; the design took five years and the build one. Liz Walsh of So. Architecture: "On a micro level Harriet's desire for privacy, sanctuary and retreat drove the project from the beginning," and the finished room won a 2023 National Commendation from the Australian Institute of Architects for residential architecture, houses (alterations and additions).

The floor is Yarra brick in Richmond, and the walls mix the same brick with Austral Access bricks in Ash; the site was too tight to take more than one pallet at a time, so the slight shift in colour from one pallet to the next now shows in the brickwork. Walsh on the choice: "The material had to speak to the existing fabric of the cottage, which comprises a rusticated stone base and brick, rendered to the street and painted to the garden," and the client's own verdict is a room "small but with a generous sense of space". The kitchen joinery is by the builder, Anstie Constructions, and the green bank through the door is a carpet of endemic Tasmanian plants chosen by Miriam Shevland of Playstreet.

So. Architecture

So. Architecture, which also writes itself SO: Architecture, is the Tasmanian studio of Liz Walsh and Alex Nielsen, run from Battery Point in Hobart alongside their work at other practices; the SO stands for Studio of. Its first self-initiated project grew from a derelict 1829 stable bought in 2015.

so-architecture.com.au · Instagram

Architecture and interior design So. Architecture (@so__architecture). Photography @seanfennessy. Build @anstieconstructions. Landscape design Playstreet. Landscape contracting Jonathan Hearn Landscape Design and Construction. Engineering Aldanmark Consulting Engineers. Seen via @thelocalproject.

The picture comes from this post on Instagram.

Researched September 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.