In this medium density housing project a single façade binds the houses together and to create a memorable new street which connects the site with a park at the rear of the property.
The main façade is structural pre-cast concrete beams, cast with a crumpled form to create an ambiguous reading of the material and to contradict its apparent structural role. The façade is enlivened through the play of light and shadow throughout the day. The façade, punctuated by a continuous strip window, provides no definition of the internal separation of dwellings.
The timber facade at the front of the property reconciles the disparate forms of the main façade and metal sheet clad back. The timber creates a fence around a communal pool which leads visitors up to the building, and then it folds back to inscribe itself into the front of the building.
To accommodate 10 houses within the block’s length and to cater for the property setbacks a complex overlapping of the houses was used. The houses are of two types: a townhouse type with ground floor living on, an exterior courtyard and first floor bedrooms; and an apartment type with first floor bedrooms and a second floor living room with large north orientated internal decks. This configuration allowed for living and outdoor spaces to be greater in size and aspect than other types would allow.
