Architect: Cumulus
Location: Apslawn, Tasmania
Client: Brown Brothers Family Wine
Year: 2022
Project Team: Peter Walker, Andrew Geeves, Andrew Grimsdale, Lucy Watts
Consultants: Adlanmark, Cova, Green Building Surveying, David Quon & Associates
Images: Adam Gibson & Renee Hodskiss
About Cumulus
Established in 2011, Cumulus is an architecture and interior design studio that creates unique residential, tourism, commercial, and social housing spaces.
With teams located around Australia, Cumulus works as a single entity, giving the studio flexibility and capacity to take on small, medium and large-scale projects.
The new expansion for Devil’s Corner builds on Cumulus’ original design for the winery, which over the last seven years has seen the cellar door become an iconic destination for visitors to Tasmania’s east coast.
Complementing Devil’s Corner’s distinctive lookout and sweeping views over Freycinet Peninsula, the new additions have more than doubled the winery’s visitor capacity while still retaining the design’s original character and concept.
“It was important for us to continue our closencollaboration with Brown Brothers and be part of the new chapter of this unique Tasmanian winery,” says Cumulus Director Peter Walker.
“The new spaces carry on our initial idea of Devil’s Corner as a village, a collection of visually distinct structures that draw on the rhythm of the natural landscape to create an immersive visitor experience.”
Echoing designs from the region’s traditional rural settlements, the winery’s new additions include an allweather courtyard, an immersive tasting area, expanded local produce kitchens, and a sunken cellar — Devil’s Corner’s new home of wine and food masterclasses, private functions, and exclusive events.
A transparent roof and sliding walls blur the boundaries between the outdoor and indoor spaces of the courtyard, providing a flexible area where visitors can both connect unimpeded to the landscape and be sheltered from the region’s unpredictable weather.
“We always considered the potential future expansion of Devil’s Corner and created a series of flexible spaces that would allow the winery to adapt easily and sustainably to the cellar door’s growing needs,” Peter adds.
“Some of the elements from the existing structures, for example, have been used in the new expansion, providing opportunities for the owners to repurpose and reimagine rather than demolish.”
Completed in late 2021, the new expansion will accommodate the winery’s number of visitors which has steadily grown to over 100,000 per year.
