Overview
The Living Places Suburban Revival showcases a range of housing that meets the need of a today’s changing demographics. It also demonstrates that with good design, high density can have a minimal impact on a traditional suburban neighbourhood.
Project Summary
Project Summary
The Living Places is the result
of design competition run as a joint
initiative between the Office of Housing
in the Department of Human Services, Victoria, and the Office of the
Victorian Government Architect. The brief behind the competition was to create
a design that explored increased density in a traditional suburban setting, and
was repeatable across a variety of sites.
The project is social housing which
is owned by the Department of Human Services, and their brief was to create a
range of housing types to accommodate a wide range of demographics including
single storey fully accessible accommodation, and 4 bedroom housing with
downstairs accessible bedrooms and bathrooms. It also had to demonstrate best
practice architecture and sustainability.The winning design by Bent
Architecture focuses on maximising the use of the communal outdoor space. These
areas are a shared space that blends car manoeuvring and accommodation,
pedestrian paths and communal outdoor spaces and seating areas. The success
depends on careful consideration of detail, as well as a community of residents
that are happy to share spaces and co-operate with each other. The single storey houses are
designed in three distinct, staggered
forms each with a roof at a different pitch. The ceiling follows the roof
profile to give a generous amount of internal space, and the external pitches
break up the overall form of the building and provide a response to the
suburban setting.The buildings are designed to
follow best practice energy efficient design principles. The walls have
increased thermal mass to heat and cool the buildings, there are rain tanks
under the slabs, and solar hot water and energy generating photo-voltaic cells
on the roof.The project is a place to live for
a wide range of people who would otherwise have had no other choice in this
neighbourhood. It shows that a relatively dense development can fit into an
existing suburban area, respond sensitively to the surrounding stand along
houses yet be a distinctly modern housing form. The single storey houses are
designed in three distinct, staggered
forms each with a roof at a different pitch. The ceiling follows the roof
profile to give a generous amount of internal space, and the external pitches
break up the overall form of the building and provide a response to the
suburban setting.The buildings are designed to
follow best practice energy efficient design principles. The walls have
increased thermal mass to heat and cool the buildings, there are rain tanks
under the slabs, and solar hot water and energy generating photo-voltaic cells
on the roof.The project is a place to live for
a wide range of people who would otherwise have had no other choice in this
neighbourhood. It shows that a relatively dense development can fit into an
existing suburban area, respond sensitively to the surrounding stand along
houses yet be a distinctly modern housing form. Information for this case study was
largely sourced from ‘Model Housing’ written by Jennifer Clazini in July/August 2012 issue of
Architecture Australia Vol 101No 4.Information for Getting it Right:
The Building was sourced from ‘Living by Design’ written by Kate Robertson in
the Domain, April 26-27, 2013
Other information was taken
directly from the website of Bent Architecture