WeiLin Chong

The Village Cohousing is a 54-terrace unit community located along the Bendigo Creek with an expansive view of Lake Weeroona. It has adaptively reused the former site of the Bendigo Gasworks, and revitalised it into a new mixed-use cohousing project. The project consists of a wide range of public and communal spaces to maximise community engagement, while also providing individual terrace units for residents to respect their privacy.

The design proposal was started from the consideration of site and social issue: rapid population growth; social isolation; and technology apathy. Based on these information, my research question is “How can physical interaction and visual connection of cohousing create a sense of cohesion and belonging for diverse individuals and families in local communities?”

The master plan was designed based on several design stages: analyse the site context; identify significance value of heritage buildings; connect network with surrounding; divide into zones for different functions; and choose a key focus area for further development.

In conjunction with the research question, the key area design strategies will mainly focuses on the physical interaction and visual connection. There are a wide range of shared spaces on each floor to maximise mutual assistance and engagement while also providing individual units for residents to respect their privacy.

Visual connection: to maximize the views in both residential and natural sides. Most of the buildings have two-sided openings and rooftop space so that people can enjoy the views when gathering. The advantage of doing this is to foster a safer community where children play on the ground and parents can visually look at them and neighbors frequently greet and communicate with each other with an expansive view of creek and lake.

Physical interaction: to maximize the shared spaces for human and nature engagement not only between residents, but also between residents and local communities. Number 1-10 are the 3D visualization of the public and communal spaces.

The schemes of both mixed-use and cohousing buildings were designed with the full participation of residents and the local community to create a sense of cohesion and belonging. The common vision of the project is to foster a physically interactive community where people can meet, gather, and engage on the site in a visually connective cohousing project