Solid touchstone: Goulburn Street Housing

Elegantly yet dramatically increasing inner Hobart’s residential density, Cumulus Studio’s Goulburn Street Housing responds to the heritage context of the streetscape while introducing a new functional and formal typology.

Across Australia, the regions are rising rapidly and shifting gears quickly to address emerging issues that would have felt like a distant dream as recently as five years ago. The combination of constantly increasing house prices in metropolitan centres and opportunities for flexible workplaces that have come from COVID-19-related lockdowns has meant that there is an increase in migration to, and investment in, regional towns and cities. Dual forces are at play, with the outward migration of people from cities to regions mirrored by the reduction of inward migration from regional towns to capital cities. In many ways, this trend presents great opportunities for positive transformation, as increased population provides the critical mass required for more services. But it has also escalated problems with housing affordability and availability.

Hobart is experiencing these issues acutely. House prices rose 15.9 percent in 2020, an acceleration of a recent trend that has seen an overall rise in house prices in the capital by an extraordinary 52 percent in the last five years.1 This is having a knock-on effect across the state, with the declining affordability of Hobart leading to price increases of 22 to 26 percent in regional towns in the last year.2 This has completely transformed the housing market, with dire consequences for lower income residents, for whom housing affordability is becoming an increasingly distant dream. On the flip side, increased house prices promote the viability of multiresidential developments that weren’t possible even five years ago, when a three-bedroom house 15 minutes from Hobart’s centre could be purchased for less than $500,000.

The long, narrow site was formerly an on-grade car park that spanned the city block; now, the gradient offsets the building’s height.

The long, narrow site was formerly an on-grade car park that spanned the city block; now, the gradient offsets the building’s height.

Image: Adam Gibson

The market is responding to this shift, and the nascent boom is evidenced by 38 multiresidential applications approved in 2020, potentially adding 330 dwellings to Hobart’s inner city.3 This has the potential to transform the city centre, as underused and greyfield sites provide the opportunity for more diverse land uses. It also facilitates a new housing typology for social and community housing, which both government and private developers are recognizing.

Occurring in parallel with the finalizing of a state-wide planning scheme and guidelines for building heights that aim to respect the heritage context of the city, this new wave of development has, to some extent, caught the city off guard. As local area plans are formulated and the inherent complexities of a diverse and intertwined zoning of the city centre are revealed, new development applications are testing whether the planning scheme can facilitate good urban design outcomes, or not! As other states have discovered, it is critical at this juncture for good developments to provide exemplars that will help to steer market forces.

An access ramp helps to make the building suitable for not-for-profit tenancy management company Wintringham, which houses at-risk Tasmanians over 50.

An access ramp helps to make the building suitable for not-for-profit tenancy management company Wintringham, which houses at-risk Tasmanians over 50.

Image: Adam Gibson

Goulburn Street Housing by Cumulus Studio is a welcome addition to this new wave of development in Hobart’s inner city. It sets a high bar not just for social housing, but for multiresidential projects in general. At an urban level, the building makes a positive contribution to the neighbourhood while dramatically increasing the residential density. A considered understanding of the context informed a strong architectural approach that responds to the surrounding heritage streetscape while introducing a new functional and formal typology to the city.

At the heart of the project is a well-conceived procurement process. Cumulus was involved from the initial stages, working with the Tasmanian state government and the City of Hobart to determine suitable sites from council-owned land. This involved testing a range of sites, which in turn allowed Cumulus to gain an understanding of a building typology that is relatively new to its portfolio. The continuity of this process enabled all parties to build a shared understanding of the potential sites and building program.

Located just beyond the fringe of the CBD and only four blocks from both the Elizabeth Street Mall and the Sullivans Cove waterfront, the long and narrow site formerly was an on-grade car park that spanned the city block. It offers direct access to a broad range of services and amenities. The apartments were designed to accommodate a diversity of users, with accessibility and a balance between privacy and community central to the architectural strategy. The client profile was not defined at the design phase, but the project is now being managed by a not-for-profit tenancy management company, Wintringham, to house at-risk Tasmanians over the age of 50. Offering secure tenancy for an unlimited period, this will be many of the residents’ “forever home.”

Generous built-in shelving and storage in a restrained colour and material palette allow residents to balance neutrality and personality.

Generous built-in shelving and storage in a restrained colour and material palette allow residents to balance neutrality and personality.

Image: Adam Gibson

At a practical level, the building provides 25 apartments that can house up to 42 people on a site that previously would have been two residential lots. Eight one-bed and 17 two-bed apartments range in size from 61 to 72 square metres – well above the minimum standard for apartments. The block and individual apartment designs prioritize natural light, ventilation and outdoor space. Each unit has a generous balcony (most are north-facing) with a minimum 1.8-metre depth. The sunny roof terrace, which looks towards the city and back to kunanyi/Mount Wellington beyond, and external-facing corridors provide opportunities for residents to occupy generous common spaces.

Internally, the well-lit rooms allow for flexibility in furniture arrangement. There is ample built-in storage, including open shelves that allow the spaces to be easily personalized. A simple material and colour palette provides a good balance between neutrality and a clear spatial character. Low sills increase access to natural light, and a level threshold between the living spaces and balcony ensures ease of access between inside and out.

To increase the natural light and feeling of openness within the apartment’s living areas, Cumulus Studio chose windows with low sills.

To increase the natural light and feeling of openness within the apartment’s living areas, Cumulus Studio chose windows with low sills.

Image: Adam Gibson

Beyond the well-considered practicality of the individual apartment design, Goulburn Street Housing is most impressive at an urban scale. Capitalizing on a seven-metre fall across the site, Cumulus has articulated the building mass into three discrete elements that mediate the scale and formal bulk. At both the north and south ends, the building meets the street as a three-storey building, but the sectional strategy utilizes the slope to disguise the five-storey height of the central block.

Cumulus recognized the opportunity to create separate entrances to the north and south, and the two facades address the contrasting streetscapes. A red-brick base grounds the building and creates a connection to the neighbouring buildings along Goulburn Street, where the facade is broken into two parts. The tower-like element to the west mediates between the two-storey Victorian terrace houses and the new three-storey apartment block. To the east, an upper layer of white rendered brick shifts the scale and creates a corner to the long edge of the building. The brick plinth steps up the slope, maintaining a base that is variously perforated and solid, and opens to the ground-floor carpark, which forms a podium deep inside the block. To the north, along Bathurst Street, the interplay of rendered white and red brick creates a modulated facade that articulates between the smaller scale of older buildings to the north and the larger residential neighbours to the east.

In the context of imminent rapid change, Goulburn Street Housing provides a solid touchstone for future development. This project is a gold standard around which new apartment and urban guidelines can be formed.

1. Alexandra Humphries, “Hobart’s housing market has been growing ‘dramatically’ for five years, with no cooling down in sight,” ABC News, 2 March 2021, abc.net.au/news/2021-03-02/no-signs-of-hobart-housing-market-cooling-down-experts-say/13205560 (accessed 30 June 2021).

2. Sue Williams, “Tasmania, Hobart house prices soar to unaffordable levels, reaching ‘crisis point’,” Domain, domain.com.au/news/tasmania-hobart-house-prices-soar-to-unaffordable-levels-reaching-crisis-point-1049011 (accessed 30 June 2021); approximately 80 percent of buyers are local, with the remaining 20 percent being from the mainland.

3. Blair Richards, “Hobart City Council apartment application approvals soar in 2020,” The Mercury, 3 January 2021, themercury.com.au/realestate/hobart-city-council-apartment-application-approvals-soar-in-2020/news-story/b3455c82dfc76391bf2efb8320411f41 (accessed 30 June 2021).

Credits

Project
Goulburn Street Housing by Cumulus Studio
Architect
Cumulus Studio
Tas, Australia
Project Team
Keith Westbrook, Peter Walker, Claire Austin, Jet O’Rourke, Rosella Sciurti, Andrew Grimsdale
Consultants
Building surveyor Green Building Surveying
Environmental consultant Red Sustainability Consultants
Heritage consultant Purcell
Landscape architect Urban Initiatives
Mechanical, electrical, data and fire engineering Cova
Quantity surveyor WT Partnership
Structural, civil and hydraulic engineer Aldanmark
Traffic consultant Milan Prodanavic
Aboriginal Nation
Built on the land of the muwinina people and palawa people of lutruwita
Site Details
Location Hobart,  Tas,  Australia
Site type Urban
Project Details
Status Built
Completion date 2021
Category Residential
Type Multi-residential

Source

Project

Published online: 23 Nov 2021
Words: Helen Norrie
Images: Adam Gibson

Issue

Architecture Australia, September 2021

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