the mumirimina people of the paredarerme nation
Tasmania
Isabel & Elsie set a new standard for social housing for women and children in Tasmania. These two replicable prototype homes for the Hobart Women’s Shelter address the urgent need for safe accommodation for women and children facing homelessness. Funded by community donations, philanthropists and industry support, these two homes are designed to be replicated as land becomes available.
The homes are an outcome of a co-design and research-informed process, adopting trauma-informed design principles to create spaces that are safe, nurturing, healthy and dignified. The homes are affordable, pet-friendly, low-energy, low-maintenance, and secure, conveying a sense of calm that will give families the space to heal and recover.
The homes were delivered with a volume-home builder, using local and trainee labour and starting with a standard home specification, making adjustments for greater cost-benefit, quality and durability to suit the client’s needs.Â
True sustainability encompasses more than environmental factors; it includes social and economic dimensions and, in expansive formulations, extends to incorporate cultural aspects too. Isabel and Elsie is awarded an sustainability award for an expansive understanding of what makes a project sustainable.
In offering spaces for women escaping domestic violence, the project’s very purpose supports the social foundations of a sustainable community – safe, respectful, and nurturing relationships. Efficient interior planning and built-ins, such as a daybed that doubles as a guest sleeping nook, afford the flexible occupancy patterns to accommodate complex families or extended social support networks. By providing the material substrate for autonomy, this project also supports the economic sustainability of the women that it seeks to serve.
In environmental terms, the provision of small-footprint, modestly scaled, L-shaped dwellings maximise the benefits from limited resources, leaves space for a sheltered, low-maintenance garden, and keeps environmental impact low. Materials are durable and economical: carbon-neutral bricks, plywood wall linings. Solar arrays and rainwater tanks harvest energy and water.
Every effort counts; each sustainable house is important. But by developing this as a prototype for future replication, the project multiplies its potential for positive contribution. Sustainability becomes systemic rather than symbolic.
Commendation For Residential Architecture – Houses (new)
Shelter, the first and most important duty of architecture, is also a category of residential work that is often shunned and invisible. Isabel and Elsie shows how architecture can furnish the servicing of basic human needs with dignity and integrity. With L-shaped plans, compact living-dining spaces, and warm textured materials, these modest dwellings use simple means to achieve something that can be so elusive: home.
The designs convey a sense of calm that will give families the space to heal and recover. One of the residents talked about the curves in the design, how they feel so nurturing. Another said that the home feels like a sanctuary.Â
If people don’t have a lot, there can sometimes be a mentality that they should be happy to take anything. One of the impacts of these prototype homes is that we are potentially reshaping that thinking in the community. I certainly think we have set a new standard for social housing for women and children in Tasmania.
Christopher Clinton, Project Architect
Emily Taylor, Project Architect
Dr. Ceridwen Owen, Researcher & Advisor
Ryan Strating, Director, Core Collective Architects
Georgina Russell, Outreach & Marketing Assistant
Kathrine Vand, Visualisations
Kirsten Fox, Outreach & Marketing Assistant
Cate Sumner, Law & Development Partners, Client Collaborator
Lymesmith Polychromy, Colour Specialist
SBLA Landscape Architecture & Urban Design, Landscape Consultant
Lee Tyers Building Surveyors, Building Surveyor
Samantha Donnelly, UTS, Trauma-Informed Design Advisor
Gandy & Roberts Consulting Engineers, Structural Engineer
Exsto Management & Slattery, Cost Consultant
Enviro Dynamics, Environmental Consultant
Danielle Gray, Gray Planning, Town Planner
Howarth Fisher and Associates, Traffic Engineer
Red Sustainability, ESD Consultant
Southern Lighting and Distribution, Lighting Consultant
Veris, Land Surveyor
Futago, Signage Design
Home + Style Hobart, Stylist