Description
Australia’s leading sustainable architecture and landscape design magazine for inspirational stories on local and international houses, gardens, and profiles.
The makeup of housing is changing in our cities, we are seeing a gradual progression towards medium density. We are also seeing alternative approaches to the traditional home. In this issue, we look at five different types of architecture that aren’t your usual single house on an urban block.
On an infill site in inner Melbourne, Six Degrees Architects teamed up with Hip V. Hype to utilize a narrow strip bound by roads and a light rail. The outcome is a groundbreaking carbon-neutral, 8.6-star, 100-percent electric apartment block that is comfortable and beautiful.
In Brisbane, a trio of pavilions connected via courtyards has created a village-like home for multiple generations. Finished just before COVID and with an ailing parent to care for, it demonstrates the value of multi-generational living.
On a 30-square-metre footprint in Sydney’s Surry Hills, an eye-catching three-level façade envelopes two apartments and a studio over seven split levels. The owner and architect Adam Harrow, along with his husband, downsized from another apartment without sacrificing any amenity and say it has simplified their lives.
With a vision to recreate experiences in Copenhagen, Thom Gill and Helle Westergaard of Studio Nord found some land in New Zealand, designed a co-house development, and marketed it themselves. Not a single person has moved out and there is a waitlist to buy, a testament to its success and the growing awareness of the value of community.
Finally, another fabulous retrofit has sprung to life in inner Melbourne. Formerly a motel, now a block of 15 build-to-rent apartments that respond to the housing shortage while demonstrating an effective low-carbon development model. Exciting times.
