Melbourne townhouses create sense of community

Project:                   Heller St Townhouses, Melbourne

Architect:                James Legge, Six Degrees Architects

Carpet:                   Trojan Twist cut pile

This thoughtful town house project is part of a development on vacant municipal land where the front two-thirds of the property has been developed as a public park and the rear third as a set of 10 town houses - very much designed with family living in mind and creating a real sense of community.

 

Photographs courtesy of Patrick Rodriguez.

 

 

Architect James Legge, one of the directors of Six Degrees was a part of the development company - Heller Street Group - and now lives in one of the town houses.

He says the private terraces at the front of each of the dwellings are purposefully ambiguous in their public/private nature.

"The intention was to create spaces that can be enjoyed privately but foster a community feeling in their proximity to the park and the adjacent pathway. This is similar to the way that the local Greek and Italian migrants opposite the park use their front porches to sit and chat to the neighbours as they pass by.

"Rather than replicate 10 identical facades representing the 10 more or less identical units, the building is treated as a whole and the building form is broken up across the façade through the expressive use of deep window reveals and an exposed timber stair. An abstracted idea of interlocking timber blocks is extrapolated across the façade and further expressed within the dwellings both in the interlocking of the spaces and the detailing of the joinery."

The middle level is the living level and flows out across an open terrace into the park, he explains.

"This level has a floor of polished black concrete and provides a suitably hardy surface for the kids running in and out of the house to the park. The upper level contains the bedrooms where the luxurious warmth of Cavalier Bremworth's Trojan Twist cut pile wool carpet is used for comfort, warmth and to assist in the noise attenuation of these rooms. The basement level is open to natural light via a small courtyard and landscaping to the rear, but is otherwise a basement. This space is enclosing and is used as a study / den and is also carpeted using the 100% sustainable wool carpet. This is where we will hunker down in winter."

James says wool carpet was chosen because it was a natural fibre, wears well and was generally a much better product than the alternatives, particularly for the home.   "Although we wanted the thermal mass of the polished concrete floor in the living room, for the bedrooms and the den/study we wanted the warmth and comfort of carpet."

"We use Cavalier Bremworth for its rich colours, plush piles and general quality. Nothing like NZ sheeps wool on the floor!"

The development has been designed with environmental sustainability as a high priority. All rainwater is collected into two 50,000 litre tanks beneath the driveway. This water is then used to water the park. Reclaimed ironbark from the Syndey docks is used for the façade. Deep window reveals and pergolas control summer sun, while the thermal mass of the living room floor slab, abundant insulation and double glazing throughout provide significant passive solar solutions.  

James says nearly all of the new owners have two or three children, so the park is a hive of activity.

"Because of the nature of the front terraces and the openness of the living levels to the park, the kids move between the houses and it is not uncommon to have either no children or eight children in your house. A great sense of community is developing as was hoped during the design process."