Status: Awarded 3rd Place
Program: Multi-Residential
Location: Dandenong, Victoria
Collaborators: Tobias Natrass Pond, Martin Musiatowicz & Bruce Rowe
This proposal for new medium-density social housing in the outer Melbourne suburb of Dandenong introduces generous amenity, environmental sustainability and community engagement to this tough pragmatic context. This is achieved through a range of strategies ranging from the individual domestic scale to whole of site urban design.
The scheme responds to the scale and rhythm of the immediate neighbourhood context by continuing the mass and grain of the adjacent housing stock. This is achieved by placing similar scaled semi-detached units facing the street.
Communal green areas filter between the units and connect to the central circulation spine. Multiple access points combined with a varied colour scheme promotes a sense of individual ownership within the larger entity.
The different sized residential units are distributed across the site in a way that encourages community engagement. Smaller units, to be occupied by individuals or the elderly are located on the ground floor to the front to encourage informal supervision by those occupying the larger dwellings to the rear of the site.
Acting as a unifying the device, the circulation spine is a manifestation of a communal approach to servicing all units on the site. It provides access to communal infrastructure including a shared community meeting room, a work and resource room, shared laundries and bike storage, and at the same time connects the whole of site water recycling systems to be reticulated to each unit.
This project adopts a whole-of-site approach to addressing environmental issues. All water functions are integrated and distributed to each of the units using the circulation spine. Rain water is collected and fed to a centralised water tank for toilet flushing and garden watering. Grey water recycling is integrated into the circulation spine. Centralised solar hot water systems are also located on the roof of the scheme and distributed via the circulation spine.
The sixteen units comprise a mix of 1-2 person units, 2-4 person units and units capable of accommodating 5+ people up to a potential maximum of ten persons. All 5+ units have been designed over two levels to ensure that the likely family occupants have their own backyard and easy access to ground floor communal play equipment.
