Medium Density housing. Melbourne

Designing for Medium Density living: Melbourne

Project requirements included: creating a plan that can be copied a series of times over a block in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. The block is 3 times 9 x 40m and there is a firewall in between each which is as high as i choose my floors to be.

Spaces required are:

- minimum of 4 apartments for singles, couples and family's

- office space.

- retail/cafe space.

Must be for medium density living

Must contain both garden and water features.

This design used a very creative process to start with. Experimenting with Water color paints and lines I began blocking and space planing with a mind free of restrictions. 

Then it was onto actual spacial planning. I decided I would make the spaces in blocks and build in a way that there would be balcony's and spaces in between. I later chose to make the block into two mirrored halves, with 6 apartments, 2 on each floor starting at the first floor, 2 family, 2 couple and two single spaces with the ground floor being for retail and office spaces. 

The final result was 6 almost identically planned apartments, each getting smaller the higher the floor. Each space had a balcony, all of grass. They each had significant window space and lighting, a sizable bathroom, kitchen and living area.

The sides of the building that would usually rest against the firewall have been offset by 800mm so as to create an interesting and private lighting opportunity for the living spaces. The idea is that the firewall will have some sort of vines sprawling up along it and that the shard of light coming down from above would make a cooling and calming atmosphere within the living areas of the apartments.

The offices and retail space below all had nice natural lighting also. The design created shared bathrooms between retail and office, and one the other end of the block, two offices. 

I was conscious of environmental impacts when I was designing this block, taking care to provide plenty of natural light and air flow opportunity's. 

I feel like I really thought this project through. There were lots of changes and I really felt like I had a true focus on what was to be achieved. The central staircase is probably the part of the design I feel like would need to be changed as it is a bit of a space waster. The staircase could definitely be condensed and be made far more practical. Also if need be, the apartments could be built to a much higher scale.