Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung
Victorian
This redevelopment of a government owned site in West Heidelberg comprised of 130 tenure blind social and affordable homes, is one of the first delivered in the Victorian Government’s Big Housing Build.
The three buildings respond to the scale of their suburban context ranging from 2 storey townhouses to 6 storey apartments. Entries are designed with a low number of keys per entry enabling small communities to flourish, providing a sense of address for all residents. The foyers and corridors are naturally ventilated by light filled openings and provide numerous spaces for gathering and pausing.
The apartments have been arranged to be flexible postconstruction through careful structural design. Two smaller dwellings can be inexpensively combined to form one larger one without structural or services modification. The large balconies provide outlook without compromising on privacy. Additionally, the material palette draws inspiration from the site’s flora and references the site’s history as an Olympic village.
Commendation for Urban Design
Tarakan Street Social and Affordable Housing proffers an optimistic urbanism, where density, affordability, and landscape flourish in dialogue. Skilfully massed, the housing is contextually agile. It steps from homely townhouses to civic proportions of six levels, respectfully evading the canopies of 20 mature trees and providing 130 comfortable homes in the same space as 13 homes across the road. Abundant public/private gradients are interwoven dexterously throughout with particular care given to the privacy of the ground level apartments. This is a rigorous, generous architecture.
Nick Bourns, Project Director
Benjamin Strong, Project team
Laura Courtney, Project team
Nick Hubicki, Project team
Sam Blake, Project team
Thuyai Chung, Project team
Kate Jenkin, Project team
Thomas Sheehan, Project team
Michael Strack, Project Team
Mariola Kesy, Project team
Vanessa Bird, Architect
Elan Ko, Project team
Neil De la Coeur, Architect
Michaela Kalinka, Project Architect
Adrian Costa, Project Leader
Felix Balfour, Signage and Wayfinding
Victor Wong, Project Team
WRAP Engineering, Engineer
TTW, Engineer
Acoustic Logic, Acoustic Consultant
WSP, Waste Engineer
Codus, Building Surveyor
Openwork, Landscape Consultant
One Mile Grid Traffic Engineers, Traffic Engineer
Tract, Town Planner