Jury citation
Within an economic context that is extremely difficult to negotiate, this collaboration between NMBW and MADA has delivered a flexible and dignified community housing model that focuses on the residents’ spatial agency and wellbeing.
Through intelligent planning and a robust materiality, the design anticipates many modes of living and changes in household circumstance, and is supported by a sophisticated communal strategy. The quality of the interstitial spaces and gardens is highly purposeful and carefully resolved, providing the foundation for a genuine shared life for the residents.
The innovative nature of the project is also a credit to the client, who is clearly seeking to extend the offering, diversity and quality of much-needed community housing. NMBW has consistently speculated within the realms of social housing and St Albans Housing is a further seminal contribution to this important typology.
— St Albans Housing was reviewed by Rachel Hurst in Architecture Australia March/April 2022. Read the review here.
Project credits
Architect NMBW Architecture Studio in association with Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA); Project team Nigel Bertram, Marika Neustupny, Lucinda McLean, Shane Murray, Deborah Rowe, Holly Board, Laura Harper, Marie Le Touze, Simon Robinson, Jonathon Yeo, Benjamin Nicaud; Builder Chancett Builders; Landscape consultant Glas Urban; Structural and civil engineer OPS Engineers; Services engineer, ESD consultant NJM Design; Building surveyor PLP Building Surveyors and Consultants
St Albans Housing is located in St Albans, Victoria on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation.
Source
Award
Published online: 3 Nov 2022
Words:
2022 National Architecture Awards Jury
Images:
Peter Bennetts
Issue
Architecture Australia, November 2022