2016 National Architecture Awards: Frederick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing

Knutsford / Stage 1 by spaceagency architects Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing: Frederick Romberg Award Australian Institute of Architects

Jury citation

In what was, at the time of construction in Western Australia, an inflated building industry, the incredibly low construction budget made Knutsford immediately stand out as a project that needed to be visited. What then emerged as a clear category winner was a highly unusual form of multiresidential housing, underpinned by factors so rarely sought in this category – namely context, community and belonging. The mid-density, low-rise model is commendable for the care and restraint exercised by the architects in what would typically be edge-to-edge, McMansion-style housing. The delicate site planning revolves around a series of dissecting laneways and courtyards. Instead of the typical street frontage of garage doors and crossovers, the laneways enable cars to be buried deep within the centre and therefore allow liveable areas and outdoor patios to engage directly with the street. The resulting network of internal streets carved deep into the blocks creates a suburban setting where you could imagine children practising their fast bowl or stab passing a Sherrin.

Occasionally adopting a zero setback, and using a series of generously proportioned courtyards and terraces, the architect has ensured that each apartment/townhouse has equal access to northern light. A series of stepping walls and brick volumes creates an instant neighbourhood landscape, designed to bring light deep into the floor plates but also retracting in places to open up dwellings almost entirely to the street. The rambling white brick and recycled concrete blocks follow the gentle terrain, masking what would usually be a tabula rasa benched site. The architects are not precious about how the occupants change the dwellings’ identity. They are almost factory shells, ready to be occupied and influenced by those who inhabit them, a fact made evident by the galvanized pipe framework that tempts inhabitants to drape bamboo screens or other found objects over it for sun protection.

Credits

Project
Knutsford / Stage 1
Architect
Spaceagency Architects
Fremantle, WA, Australia
Project Team
Michael Patroni (principal architect); Tobias Busch (project architect); Clayton Edwards (graduate of architecture); Dimmity Walker (design architect)
Consultants
Acoustic consultant Gabriels Environmental Design
Builder Georgiou Group
Civil consultant Development Engineering Consultants
ESD consultant Wood & Grieve Engineers
Electrical consultant BEST Electrical
Engineer Santillo Engineering
Hydraulic consultant Fluid Designs
Landscape consultant Place Laboratory
Project manager GMPM Consulting
Site Details
Location Fremantle,  WA,  Australia
Site type Suburban
Project Details
Status Built
Completion date 2015
Category Residential
Type Apartments, Multi-residential

Source

Award

Published online: 3 Nov 2016
Words: National Architecture Awards Jury 2016
Images: Dimmity Walker, Michael Patroni, Robert Frith

Issue

Architecture Australia, November 2016

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