Suburban Black is the outcome of an aggregation of economics, yield parameters, the desire to create a highly marketable product for the developer owners and high-quality living spaces within place-making architecture.
This project probes and questions the forms of the ubiquitous townhouse unit development in suburban Melbourne. This project comprises nine family-sized townhouse dwellings spread across three typical suburban blocks in heavily-treed Ringwood.
The architecture is directly driven by a topographical and contextual study of the site. The light "bark" hues of the ground floor plane and the black "shadowing" effect of the crowning components are inspired by the surrounding vegetation.
The architecture thus appears to "grow" out of the site. The roof forms are dramatised - motivated by topography and are a playful and graphical twist on standard roof forms.
The townhouses have been laid out in a manner to optimise northerly solar access into its living areas where practicable. In addition, semi-permeable driveways are used in parts to service the dwellings to reduce stormwater run-off.
Many trees have been retained on the site, over and above the minimums required, which contributes to the continuing natural character of the area. A sense of community is also encouraged with the incorporation of a small communal "gathering" area around a large gum tree.
Suburban Black is a laboratory for the continuing exploration of how architecture is able to aspire towards a melding of often conflicting and compromised intersections between the yield-driven developer-type briefs and the experience of the end-user.
What was the brief?
A typical developer-driven brief underscored by budgets, maximising yield and the marketability of the dwellings
What were the key challenges?
1. Utilising features of the topography
2. Turning the potential restrictions of compulsory tree retention into benefits for the clients and the end-users.
3. Adversion to cookie-cutter standard townhouse designs
4. Convincing the client to deviate from the norm
What were the solutions?
1. The layout and the configuration of the dwellings optimise the fall of the site and solar access.
2. Trees became focal points for dwellings and one large tree was designed as the axis for a small communal space for the residents.
3. The creation of efficient, rational and simple dwelling designs with large open-plan living areas which spilled out onto northerly backyards was brought together by a play of simple materials and roof forms.
4. The marketability and the use of standard construction techniques resulting in similar building costs to "standard" designs, helped to sway the clients to deviate from the norm.
