Best social housing community design for Global Awards shortlisted
LONDON: The shortlist for the best social housing community design has been declared.
Over 250 designs have been considered by the awards secretariat. One of the finalists in this category is shown above.
Kennedy Nolan’s development in Belmont, Geelong, for Housing Choices Australia (HCA) demonstrates how social housing can be sensitively stitched into an established neighbourhood at a modest, domestic scale.
Set in a low-rise residential suburb, the project replaces 16 deteriorated single-storey bedsits, delivering 29 apartments across a cluster of two-storey buildings. This unusual typology is one a typical developer might eschew, yet it suits the cohort HCA wanted to retain. The paired buildings draw deliberately on Kennedy Nolan’s experience with supportive housing, where smaller communities per dwelling are easier to navigate for residents and providers alike.
Equity is built into the project at every register, from wheelchair-accessible dwellings and lift access to generously proportioned corridors where residents can pass or pause with room to spare. Materially, the project draws on Kennedy Nolan’s “tried and tested” palette from its well-appointed residential work – sturdy brick, concrete floors, considered pattern and colour – applied here without compromise. The plans are highly efficient and repetitive, but the relationship between the two blocks introduces what the architects call “a little unexpected complexity,” avoiding the racked-and-stacked flatness of rationalised social housing delivery.
Threading through the structures, the landscape by Simon Ellis brings generosity and long-term resilience: stormwater is captured and retained entirely on site through swales and gardens, and plant selections emphasise cost-efficient maintenance. Productive garden plots along the boundary serve residents who want them, and the streetscape edge doubles as a green buffer, replacing a dilapidated paling fence. Sited on a prominent block close to a heritage-listed mansion, the development met some initial local apprehension, but has since been accepted by neighbours – becoming a positive reference point for other areas where new social housing is anticipated.
The Global Award winner will be announced in December in London. (Globals)