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sustainable cities

DISRUPTERHOUSING MARKET

DISRUPTERHOUSING MARKET

DISRUPTERThe Nightingale model

demonstrates affordable and sustainable urban housing in Australia is no longer an

urban myth.

story > Laura Valic

ousing that’s stylish, sustainable, affordable and liveable, as well as conveniently close to the amenities offered

by our cities? This enviable concept may sound like an impossible dream in Australia’s heated and speculative property market, but for an exciting initiative spreading across the country – Nightingale Housing.

Spearheaded by a group of socially-conscious architects, the Nightingale model is all about delivering beautiful, well-built and well-sized – not over-

sized – homes for real life. Much of the excitement for home buyers lies in the potential freedom from having to settle on profit-driven developments that dominate housing supply in cities; usually built with little consideration for people, community or the environment.

Jessie Hochberg, general manager of Nightingale Housing, says that sustainability is at the core of this replicable model.

‘There’s no specific design that is Nightingale…[it] is a system used to produce housing,’ she explains.

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‘Buildings are built with the intention of reducing operating and maintenance costs over its lifetime. One other key part is urban contribution; it responds to specific contexts and gives back to the community in which it’s located.’

This housing market disrupter started with Breathe Architecture’s The Commons, an award-winning housing development in Melbourne. Completed in 2013, the five-storey dwelling stands out for what it doesn’t offer. And its striking simplicity forces us to reconsider what we actually need from our homes to live comfortably.

You can hear about this development in more detail from lead architect, Jeremy McLeod’s TEDx talk. But in a nutshell, designing the 24-apartment building with passive solar features, double-glazed windows and insulation eliminated the need for air-conditioners

(a $200,000 saving). And without a second bathroom or plasterboard ceilings, and a shared laundry on the rooftop garden (this reportedly has increased socialisation amongst neighbours), the units are more spacious than expected. Plus the savings mean lower unit prices for buyers.

The Nightingale model adopts many of these ideas, and with a triple bottom line approach strives for social health, environmental sustainability and financial resilience when building multi-residential housing.

Jessie says a big part of its appeal is the point at which a buyer is brought into the design process and the amount of input they’re given.

‘People who are going to live there get an informed say on what the design outcomes are,’ she says. ‘They’re given real cost information about lifecycle costs and based on that they can make key decisions about the design of their home.’

While material reductionism ensures construction savings, every development needs finance to be built, and the Nightingale model is no different. However, investor profits are capped at 15 per cent – usually a minimum of 20 per cent – ensuring profit is not prioritised at quality’s expense.

Overall, this breakaway from the norm hasn’t deterred interest. Many projects are still in the conceptual phase, except

‘THERE’S NO SPECIFIC DESIGN THAT IS NIGHTINGALE... [IT] IS A SYSTEM USED TO PRODUCE HOUSING’

>

Jessie Hochberg

Apartment living at The Commons

The Commons residents on their rooftop garden

Project photos: Andrew Wuttke

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for Nightingale 1.0 which is located across the road from The Commons and is now out of the ground with the slab down. At least three others in Victoria are in various stages of approval, while across state borders one project now has a site in Fremantle, Western Australia, and two others have been given the green light in Sydney.

The designer-led movement isn’t without its challenges though. Identifying suitable land is one, and so far they’ve found planning processes don’t recognise triple bottom line development as being different from speculative development.

But these issues aren’t insurmountable, and Jessie says the future appears bright.

‘The one thing that I’m really excited about is that we’re starting to see governments recognise Nightingale as a potential procurement model for

new housing.’ Jessie also notes that the incoming ACT Government has recently declared this a priority action for the territory.

‘At the moment we operate within the full market conditions but we’re looking at partnerships with social housing providers so that we can offer that real combination of market and social housing integrated together. Our purchasers have responded positively to that any time it’s been proposed.’

With resale restrictions on Nightingale Housing (owners can only sell for the average price rise in the suburb on top of purchase price), you don’t buy into these developments to make quick money. But for everyday Australians facing a volatile housing market where home ownership seems like an impossible reality, progressive change that addresses housing quality and affordability is the really exciting prospect. gs

sustainable cities

‘BUILDINGS ARE BUILT WITH THE INTENTION OF REDUCING

OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE COSTS OVER ITS LIFETIME’

Photo: Peter Clarke

The Commons’ bike basement

Nightingale 1: Breathe Architecture

Nightingale 3: Austin Maynard Architects