Melbourne’s population is projected to reach 8 million by 2050 and the team at Architectus is adamant: We urgently need inclusive housing strategies.
As part of Open House Melbourne, Architectus has recently hosted a sold-out panel session with industry experts to discuss how the built environment can foster connected communities and support social enterprises.
Moderated by Alexandra Lawlor, Architectus Senior Associate Elizabeth Seuseu was joined by fellow project collaborators: Sophie Buchanan, Rob Rees MBE DL and Ninna K. Larsen, Founder of Reground.
“The topic of affordable housing dominates many of our newsfeeds, and our audience came prepared. We talked long into the night about tried and tested strategies to facilitate a safe community,” shares the Architectus team.
“We were amazed to realise one of our audience members is a resident of our recently completed Markham Avenue estate – one of Victoria’s first social housing projects delivered under the Homes Victoria Big Build Program. He asked some really meaningful questions and gifted us with firsthand feedback on his positive lived experience.”
Architectus’ Markham Avenue project is a testimony the practice’s approach to building communities. It is one of the first projects designed and delivered under Homes Victoria’s Big Housing Build – a major investment in public and affordable housing across the state.
Spread across five buildings within a welcoming environment, the new precinct’s 178 homes are ‘tenure blind’. This means they are arranged and designed to be indistinguishable from each other.
Bordering an established community garden, reserve and a nearby creek, the landscape-led residential community has been planned to carefully balance development and biodiversity protection.
Outward-facing and connected to the wider community, the development also looks inward to support and nurture residents. In addition to communal outdoor spaces such as courtyards set among mature trees, Markham Avenue’s buildings feature natural brick and other durable materials designed to complement the landscape and stand the test of time.
Seuseu has worked on the Markham Avenue project since its initial phases.
‘It’s great to know that all the hard work we put into community engagement and design has paid off. In our design process engaging with communities and neighbourhoods is not a tick box exercise. It was important to have a diversity of voices on our panel and the audience brought lived experience of living - and thriving - in social housing,” she says.
Image: Supplied
