Case studies: Housing initiatives in Queensland
Each project here demonstrates a creative response to our lack of socially focused housing, and involves the early engagement of an architect, human-centred processes and consistent standards that look to the long term.
Logan Youth Foyer
The Logan Youth Foyer supports young people, aged 16–25, who are engaged in education or training and who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. This Wesley Mission Queensland program delivers services from a centre in Woodridge, a suburb in Logan City, south of Brisbane. The centre’s recent expansion – which adds 16 new onebedroom units to the existing 24 studio units, as well as communal areas, an office and training spaces for the youth community – exemplifies the value of direct engagement of an architectural practice as the principal consultant by a government department. Bark Design Architects was one of six practices shortlisted by the Office of the Queensland Government Architect and engaged by the Queensland State Government’s
Department of Housing and Public Works, with the design services procured under the recently introduced Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017. Bark led a multidisciplinary team through an inclusive co-design process, engaging multiple stakeholders under the auspices of the Department’s Housing and Homelessness Services. The outcome is a climate-responsive and socially resilient community precinct that deftly responds to the current and future needs of the service user and provider. The success of the architecture equally reflects both the value of engaging design professionals at the earliest possible opportunity in the life of a project and program, and the regionally adroit approach of Bark, honed through the design and delivery of residential and public architecture across South East Queensland.
Architect
Bark Design Architects
Client
Department of Housing and Public Works, Queensland
Manager
Wesley Mission Queensland
Location
Built on the land of the Turrbal, Yagara, Yugambeh and Yugara peoples
Logan, Qld
21 km from Brisbane CBD
Year of completion
2019
Project area
1,025 m2 (building), 4,534 m2 (site)
No. of apartments
16 new one-bedroom units (plus an indoor hub, an outdoor hub and an office, alongside 24 existing studio units)
Apartment type
Youth housing
Logan Youth Foyer floor plan key (apartments are all similar)
1 Terrace
2 Office
3 Meeting room
4 Kitchen
5 Outdoor hub
6 Living/dining
7 Bedroom
8 Laundry
9 Communal terrace
10 Indoor hub
11 Library
12 Walkway
13 Driveway and carpark
14 Half-court basketball
Project Logan Youth Foyer; Architect Bark Design Architects; Project team Lindy Atkin, Stephen Guthrie, Jo-Anne Bourke, Meg Ryan, Annie Ha, Danél Mentz, Levi Hayes, Patrick Nispel; Social urban planning Plan C; Landscape consultant Place Design Group; Structural and civil engineer Westera Partners; Electrical and mechanical engineer Webb Australia; Certification Certis Group; Fire engineer I-Fire Engineers; Hydraulic consultant MRP; Town planner Viva Property Group; Photography Christopher Frederick Jones
Primrose Street Apartments
Innovative Melbourne-based practice PHOOEY Architects is a pioneer of upcycling, an architectural methodology that explores the use of waste materials. This approach is exemplified in the practice’s Children’s Activity Centre, a jaunty urban collage in South Melbourne, for which more than 90 percent of the materials – including used shipping containers – were salvaged and reused. The practice is practically and intellectually engaged in sustainable future-proofing and in Primrose Street
Apartments, a new-build, urban-infill housing project in the Brisbane suburb of Sherwood, these principles are tested within a different context and typology. The project is an example of non-market housing for senior citizens, with a strong focus on achieving resident comfort and social sustainability. The client and owner of the building is the RAAF Veterans’ Residences Trust, which was established in 1953. The Trust provides one- and two-bedroom unfurnished, self-contained units for former members of the Air Force and their families. At Primrose Street, the generously sized 70-square-metre dwellings meet the Livable Housing Australia platinum standard.1 The apartment interiors have a warm homeliness that leans toward an arts and crafts aesthetic, eschewing the washed-out colour palette of many “blank canvas” developer-driven projects. The exterior articulation of the building, which references the vernacular architecture of traditional “Queenslanders,” aims to enhance energy efficiency and comfort in the subtropical environment of South East Queensland through operable screens and curled-up shade awnings.
Footnote
1. The Livable Housing Design Guidelines detail three standards of performance: silver, gold and platinum. Platinum is the most comprehensive standard and involves design elements that would better accommodate ageing in place and residents with higher mobility needs. The guidelines are available at livablehousingaustralia.org.au.
Architect
PHOOEY Architects
Client/Manager
RAAF Veterans’ Residences Trust
Location
Built on the land of the Turrbal people
Sherwood, Qld
12 km from Brisbane CBD
Year of completion
2019
Project area
1,310 m2 (building), 867 m2 (site)
No. of apartments
12
Apartment type
Multiresidential housing for senior citizens
Primrose Street Apartments floor plan key
1 Pedestrian preferred entry
2 Productive garden
3 Mail
4 Entry
5 Lift
6 Fire pump room
7 Bin room
8 Services
9 Car space
10 Accessible car space
11 Community garden
12 Balcony
13 Living
14 Dining
15 Bedroom
16 Laundry
17 Kitchen
18 Entry verandah
Project Primrose Street Apartments; Architect PHOOEY Architects; Project team Emma Young, Peter Ho, Joel Harvey, Angus McNichol, Anthony Timms, Paul Buckley, Radek Buczek; Builder Concord Built Australia; Structural engineer Motus Consulting; Building surveyor Steve Bartley and Associates; ESD consultant RED Sustainability Consultants; Services consultant Interior Engineering; Civil engineer HCE Engineers; Landscape architect Mark Baldock Landscape Architect; Traffic engineer Rytenskild Traffic Engineering; Town planner Urban Strategies; Acoustic consultant AECOM; Land surveyor Landmark Consulting; Photography Peter Bennetts
Orion on Rowe Residences
The multiresidential architecture portfolio of Reddog Architects is diverse – from urban towers to medium-density townhouses, and student housing to retirement communities. The recent built work of the practice includes the awardwinning Smallman Street Townhouses, a contextually and environmentally responsive infill development in the Brisbane garden suburb of Bulimba.
The practice’s upcoming work in the private housing sector includes Orion on Rowe Residences Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), designed with Ellivo for client KTQ Developments, a privately owned property development and private equity enterprise. Located in Caboolture, a suburb in the Moreton Bay Region just north of Brisbane, this 14-unit multiresidential building will be part of a masterplanned community that includes commercial and retail space, residential aged care and retirement facilities and townhouses. The SDA building is a privatesector-driven housing development that intersects with the infrastructures of community housing. MS Australia, the national voice for people with multiple sclerosis, will manage the apartments and provide assistance to tenants via the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The design of the building follows the guidelines provided by Livable Housing Australia and the apartments have been designed to provide an accessible living environment for people with different levels of physical impairment, achieving either platinum or silver benchmarks. In addition to the independent residential tenancies, the development includes two overnight accommodation studio apartments that can be used by nurses and carers.
Architect
Reddog Architects and Ellivo
Client/Manager
KTQ Developments
Care provider
MS Queensland
Location
Built on the land of the Turrbal people
Caboolture, Qld
50 km from Brisbane CBD
Status
Due for completion May 2021
Project area
1,400 m2 (building), 1,060 m2 (site)
No. of apartments
14
Apartment type
Specialist disability apartments
Anne Street Garden Units
The “missing middle” in the urban development of Australia’s cities has been the subject of thoughtful advocacy and productive speculations in recent years. In New South Wales, a national design competition informed the development of the state’s Low Rise Housing Diversity Code (formerly the Low Rise Medium Density Housing Code) and, in South Australia and Western Australia, state and local governments have explored the opportunities through design and planning. In Queensland, the Density and Diversity Done Well ideas competition, a joint initiative of the state government and the Urban Development Institute of Australia, recognized seven innovative models with neighbourhood densities of between 40 and 100 dwellings on a typical suburban block. As an extension of this competition, the Department of Housing and Public Works is engaging 20 architectural practices from the private sector to deliver social housing demonstration projects across the state. Four of these projects are now under construction, including seven social housing dwellings in Southport, on the Gold Coast. Designed by Anna O’Gorman Architect, this development is being delivered by the Housing Partnerships Office, Building Asset Services and the Office of the Queensland Government Architect. Building on the practice’s entry for Density and Diversity Done Well, and guided by stakeholder workshops and co-design processes, the village-like development clusters a group of detached, lightweight one- and twostorey dwellings around a central communal garden that provides amenity and connection. The first 10 demonstration projects, together with the Logan Youth Foyer, will inform new social housing design guidelines for the department.
Architect
Anna O’Gorman Architect
Client
Department of Housing and Public Works, Queensland with the Office of Queensland Government Architect
Location
Built on the land of the Yugambeh people
Southport,
Gold Coast CBD, Qld
Status
Due for completion late-2020
Project area
454 m2 (building), 1,228 m2 (site) 175 m2 (central communal garden)
No. of apartments
7
Apartment type
Social housing