Residential Architecture Houses (Multiple Housing)

Balfe Park Lane • Kerstin Thompson Architects • Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Residential Architecture – Houses (Multiple Housing)

The Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing category recognises achievement in the design of projects which are residential in nature and which include two or more selfcontained dwellings (whether or not the building includes uses for other purposes).

Sarah Buckeridge FRAIA Jury chair Cathi Colla FRAIA Juror

Liam Eastop RAIA Juror

Jury chair report

The jury was impressed by the quality and diversity of projects and shortlisted approximately half of the twenty entries, which enabled us to experience a cross section of typologies and scales. These ranged from new prototypes which seek to densify traditionally low-density suburbs, to inventive mid-rise solutions for our inner suburbs and regional cities, through to central city high-density towers. While responding to varied budgets and resident needs, unifying themes were evident around creating healthy communities and embedding genuine liveability within multi-residential projects. Occupation of many of the commercial and retail spaces was yet to be fully realised; however, activation opportunities were evident in carefully curated communal spaces and through celebration of arrival and circulation spaces encouraging engagement with neighbours. Sustainability initiatives frequently addressed both the environmental performance and resilience of the building fabric but also prioritised resident wellbeing and social sustainability. It was challenging to separate the shortlisted group of accomplished and technically complex projects. The abundant liveability and level of resolution of the apartments in Australia 108, Fitzroy House, 17 Union Street and Nightingale Ballarat deserve special mention. Ultimately five projects were recognised within a strong field, each adopting an experimental approach to resolving the challenges posed by their sites and typologies. These projects all demonstrated highly skilled analysis of their sites and contribution to the wider context, while keeping the resident experience at the forefront. The experience of the last two years has highlighted the importance of housing as essential social infrastructure in supporting individual and community wellbeing. Perhaps most rewarding to see was how transformative well-designed housing can be for residents. The jury congratulates the shortlisted and awarded projects for the positive impact demonstrated by the diverse housing models that were presented this year.

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The Best Overend Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Multiple Housing) Balfe Park Lane by Kerstin Thompson Architects

Wurundjeri Country

Balfe Park Lane is a masterful response to a complex urban infill site. Conceived as a cluster of four forms each distinguished through material and treatment, the project comprises 72 dwellings with ground-level communal hub and commercial spaces. Careful spacing of volumes within the site enhance internal amenity while delivering the required density. The decision to centrally locate the doubleheight pedestrian link and elevate the main communal courtyard creates a coherent sequence of public and communal spaces. The roof terrace is a delight, where integration of significant landscape provides a protected space for social gathering or quiet reflection. An impressive level of detail has been achieved within the context of larger project design and construct procurement. Facade layering and depth is incorporated through a variety of external screening details with apartment thresholds fully explored as places of enjoyment and occupation. In both the two-level terraces and apartments, materially rich details such as brick floors and timber-ceiling linings, generous and crafted joinery, and integration of flexible live/work spaces are clearly valued by the residents. A focus on cross ventilation, external shading and open-air circulation contributes to a convincing passive design approach. The robustness of the materials, potential for future activation within commercial tenancies, and further maturing of landscape, suggest that this is a building that will evolve successfully. The emphasis on active edges and an upgraded bluestone laneway has had a regenerative effect on Balfe Park. The jury was thoroughly impressed by the design thinking evident at all scales of the project and by the public benefits afforded by the project in enhancing the safety and enjoyment of the broader precinct.

Practice team: Kerstin Thompson (Design Architect), Kelley Mackay (Project Director & Design Architect), Martin Allen (Project Associate), Scott Diener (Project Associate), Anne-Claire Deville (Project Architect), Keith Little (Project Architect), Sophie Nicholaou (Project Architect), Margot Watson (Graduate of Architecture), Marwin Sim (Graduate of Architecture), Darcy Dunn (Graduate of Architecture), Hilary Sleigh (Graduate of Architecture), Tamsin O’Reilly (Visualisation Specialist) Consultant / Construction team: Fontic + DebTech (Project Manager), Slattery (Quantity Surveyor), Mordue Engineering (Structural + Civil Engineers), Contour Town Planners (Planner), Charter Keck Cramer (Land Surveyor), NJM Design Pty Ltd (Services Engineers), JAZ Building Consultants (Building Surveyor), Statewide Geotechnical Engineers (Geotechnical Engineer), NJM Design Pty Ltd (ESD Consultant), Marshall Day (Acoustic Consultant), SJB Urban (Urban Design), One Mile Grid (Traffic + Waste Consultant), Openwork (Landscape Design), JAZ Building Consultants (Access Consultants) Builder: Aspekt Construction Group Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Balfe Park Lane • Kerstin Thompson Architects • Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Multiple Housing) 231 Napier Street by Edition Office

Wurundjeri Country

231 Napier Street employs a minimalist design language and elemental approach, presenting a serene addition to its streetscape. The project draws reference from the rhythms and details of Fitzroy’s workers cottages. The horizontal pattern of party walls and ornamental thresholds is flipped to explore a vertical language of stacked volumes each defining an individual apartment. Refined fabrication to the metal balustrades and soffits provides a delicate and abstract response to contextual cues. The scheme is experimental in approach, exploring spaces of contrasting light and shade, most dramatically within the street-fronting apartments which sit subterranean to street level. Entering from the ground floor, these two apartments curate an unexpected quality of light and stillness, and open into volumetric multilevel spaces borrowing views from the leafy street beyond. The interior spaces are expansive, with a tonal palette punctuated by the saturated colour of carefully crafted joinery elements. The central circulation void creates a dramatic top-lit entry sequence and opportunity for cross ventilation and is given a luminous quality through use of concrete finishes and mesh wrapping of stairs and balustrades. There is a clear aspiration to explore assembly and detailing while extending our expectations of typical apartment planning. Through its restrained use of material, colour and form, 231 Napier Street successfully foregrounds a sensory experience of light and volume.

Practice team: Kim Bridgland (Design Architect), Aaron Roberts (Design Architect), Jonathan Brener (Project Architect), Kate Finning (Graduate of Architecture), Laura Tindall (Graduate of Architecture) Consultant / Construction team: Stantec (Engineer), GIW (ESD Consultant), Etched Projects (Landscape Consultant) Builder: Arc 3 Photographer: Rory Gardiner

Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Multiple Housing) St Albans Housing by NMBW Architecture Studio in association with Monash Art, Design & Architecture (MADA)

Wurundjeri Country

Designed and built as an experimental precedent for a suburban mid-rise housing typology, St Albans Housing exemplifies generosity and robustness, and offers a repeatable model for equitable, flexible housing.

Building siting has carefully calibrated setbacks and scale, allowing for effective landscape to be integrated within a densifying suburban context. Central to the design is accessibility and enabling dignity for residents who may have limited mobility or specific needs. Each dwelling is accessed by welcoming common circulation spaces, with additional space to sit and enjoy outlook and fresh air. Themes of generosity continue in the carefully detailed apartment entries and interiors. Fixed areas, including bathrooms, kitchen and private balconies are prioritised and designed for maximum amenity and flexibility. The large open living spaces allow each tenant to customise the layout of their home prior to moving in, to accommodate their own specific family living arrangement. Use of exposed blockwork walls and concrete floors provides a calm simplicity and backdrop for tenant personalisation, while resolving a simultaneous focus on longevity, economy and resilience. Supported through an Australian Research Council grant, the project has invested in considerable research and client engagement to inform functional and spatial outcomes. With its clear prioritisation of tenant health and wellbeing, St Albans Housing is a welcome new precedent for equitable living.

Practice team: Nigel Bertram (Design Architect), Marika Neustupny (Design Architect), Lucinda McLean (Design Architect), Shane Murray (Design Architect), Deborah Rowe (Design Architect), Holly Board (Design Architect), Laura Harper (Design Architect), Marie Le Touze (Graduate of Architecture), Simon Robinson (Graduate of Architecture), Jonathon Yeo (Graduate of Architecture), Benjamin Nicaud (Student of Architecture) Consultant / Construction team: Glas Urban (Landscape Consultant), OPS Engineers (Structural & Civil Engineer), NJM Design (Services Engineer + ESD Consultant), PLP Building Surveyors & Consultants (Building Surveyor) Builder: Chancett Builders Pty. Ltd. Photographer: Peter Bennetts

Terrace House by Austin Maynard Architects

Country: Wurundjeri

In the heart of Brunswick lies a special terrace house which stacks the adaptable terrace model to form a new multi-residential community. Vibrant street facades and significant density is achieved within the constraints of a long narrow site, reinforcing the fine grain and diversity valued within our inner urban streetscapes. Dwellings are accessed via robust open-air platforms, each large enough to meet and engage with neighbours. The project is commended for its holistic environmental and social sustainability agenda pursued through scale, fossil-free operation, and through playful, family friendly design which is being warmly embraced by its residents.

Builder: Kapitol Group

Photographer: Derek Swalwell Women’s Property Initiatives Older Women’s Housing by Studio Bright

Country: Bunurong

Women’s Property Initiatives Older Women’s Housing, is a pilot project which provides housing for single women at risk of homelessness. Situated within a typical suburban street, four townhouses are designed as a repeatable typology, with an ability to be scaled and modified to suit alternative orientations and sites. The flexible L-shaped plan and pop-up pitched roofs are key moves which allow for increased light and volumetric generosity to living spaces. The deft application of material, detail and colour demonstrates what can be achieved within a very modest budget through skilful architectural intervention.

Builder: RK Design & Build

Photographer: Rory Gardiner

Shortlisted • 17 Union Street • BKK Architects with Clare Cousins Architects • Manresa Construction Company • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Derek Swalwell

Shortlisted • Object 07 • Prior Barraclough • Henny • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Ben Hosking

Eternity Life Apartments • k20 Architecture • Longboat Development • Bunurong Country • Photographer Peter Bennetts

Patrick Walsh Apartments • Allen Kong Architect • Ireland Brown Construction Pty Ltd • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Joseph Feil/Blue Tree Studios Shortlisted • Australia 108 • Fender Katsalidis • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Bennetts

Shortlisted • Queens Place • Fender Katsalidis / Cox Architecture • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Bennetts

Melbourne Square Stage 01 • COX Architecture • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Clarke

Premier Tower • Elenberg Fraser • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Clarke Shortlisted • Fitzroy House • Jackson Clements Burrows Architects • Minicon Construction • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Trevor Mein

380 Lonsdale • Elenberg Fraser • Brady Constructions • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Clarke

Merri Green • Chamberlain Architects • Marcus Group • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Derek Swalwell

Sarah Sands • Jackson Clements Burrows Architects • Kapitol Group • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer John Gollings Shortlisted • Nightingale Ballarat • Breathe • H.Troon Pty Ltd • Wadawurrung Country • Photographer Kate Longley

Avenue • ADDARC • Brompton • Bunurong Country • Photographer Hortenzia

Paragon • Fender Katsalidis • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Willem-Dirk du Toit