A graduating student of Masters of Architecture at Monash University, class of 2022.
Housing in Australia has become unaffordable whereby demand far outweighs the supply of appropriate housing stock.This project explores a model of medium-density housing redevelopment that increases the diversity of dwelling choices in typical residential suburbs, while also providing new amenity and services to support mixed-tenure outcomes. The project is strategically located in between a set of strip shops and a local park in Rivervale, WA. The design utilises the terrace housing typology to create multiple frontages that can simultaneously borrow from and amplify surrounding community provisions.
Mixed-tenure in Rivervale
Situated between the shopping strip of Rivervale and Belmont Community Centre, the two and three-storey terrace buildings play with level changes as a spatial strategy to promote dual entry, create different frontages in response to surrounding context and allow for the effective sharing of amenity and services. For example, the carpark is designed to be used by residents, the community rooms and shop patrons, and can be adapted for alternative uses in the future.
Extending the Ground Plane
Flexible dwelling designs and careful siting arrangements demonstrate how the introduction of dwelling diversity within a suburb or a precinct can allow residents to better utilise their home-asset in different ways (e.g. live/work; room rental; live-in carer), as well as better utilise the potentials of existing suburbs to offer well designed community spaces beyond that of a park with a playground.
Beyond the Central Courtyard
The building up of topography as an extension of Belmont community centre permits the project to have level changes allowing dwellings on the first level to have ground plane access. The ‘second ground plane’ supports residents’ needs through diverse uses, such as work-from-home or new shared amenity,,that are accessible to the general public from the streetscape and offering a point of connection that can be utilised by the community, enhancing the social interactions between the tenants and the community of Belmont.
Diverse Dwellings
The design of dwellings promotes flexibility where some dwellings have rooms that open to the street and can be utilised to be beyond the conventional use of a bedroom.
In the spirit of reconciliation Monash University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
