Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

CRADLE MOUNTAIN VISITOR CENTRE

Cumulus Studio

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

ARCHITECTS
Cumulus Studio

STATUS
Built

AREA
10,000 Sqft - 25,000 Sqft

BUDGET
$10m - 50m

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
TAS, Australia

CATEGORY
Cultural › Cultural Center, Hospitality + Sport › Information Center

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

SHARP GEOMETRIC FORMS BECKON TO A HONEYED CAVE

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre is a building of contrasts. It’s imposing but harmonious. It’s an abstract interpretation of nature.

And it’s modern with a rightness unrooted in time. Most surprising of all, perhaps, is how the raw exterior unwinds into a warm, soft, delicate timber lining.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

With wild rainforests, rolling grasslands and roaming Tassie Devils, it's no surprise Cradle Mountain entices a surging number of visitors.

But how can you design a meaningful visitor experience in a footprint never intended to accommodate that number of guests? The Visitor Centre is the first development in a major plan to reimagine the iconic Cradle Mountain experience.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

The Visitor Centre offers a warm alpine welcome to reflect both the sense of rugged-up anticipation on arrival and the distinctive Cradle Mountain geology.

The sculptural, wilderness-inspired development includes an orientation building, commercial services base, shuttle bus shelter and coach transit centre. At every turn, we aimed to honour the significance and sensitivity of this world-renowned national park.

MATERIALS TO MIRROR NATURE

We designed the buildings to feel grounded, as if carved from a solid rock by a glacier. The umbrella rain-screen form references the folding angular geology of the site, inviting visitors into the cave-like timber interior.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

The choice of timber for the interior was about the poetics and qualities of the place. Because timber is natural, guests feel connected to nature. It often evokes a response other materials don’t.

MEASURED TOURISTS FOOTPRINTS

The design required an in-depth understanding of visitor movements across the site.

It needed to accommodate the wide gap between peak and average visitor numbers and feel inviting in both cases.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

Our intuitive way-finding strategy creates a flow to subtly guide visitors while they interact with site interpretation and visitor information.

We used a hierarchy of space that organises services but lets the staggering natural setting sing out.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH

The Visitor Centre design went through many iterations as more stakeholders saw the project’s potential.

But we’re proud the essence and guiding goals remained constant throughout, even as other aspects shifted around them.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre

It’s quite a feeling to walk inside the sculpted interior timber cave, a completely unexpected gem inside the building.

Whilst the triangulated timber volume’s complex geometry proved a technical challenge, it’s all the more satisfying to admire it now knowing the hard work involved.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre


Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre


Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre


Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre


Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre


Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre
Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre