Nightingale Village - Episode I: Nightingale WOW
Covered briefly by Urban.com.au earlier this month, Nightingale Village's ensemble of buildings have been created by architecture's equivalent of Marvel's The Avengers.
In the first of a series highlighting each of the seven buildings which comprise Brunswick's Nightingale Village, we take a look at Nightingale WOW designed by WOWOWA in tandem with Breathe Architecture.
Founded in 2011 by Monique Woodward, Andre Bonnice & Scott Woodward, WOWOWA's team of nine is based out of a shopfront in Carlton North.
Occupying a corner site at 11 West Street adjacent to the Upfield bike corridor, Nightingale WOW's playfully colourful design is the result of an eight step process;
- Step 1: Acknowledge the context is colourful & of varied typologies ie Edwardian, Victorian, Warehouses, Art Deco, Federation, Ware Service etc.
- Step 2: Dream of creating a vertical neighbourhood
- Step 3: Research space frames - these provide the framework for individuality to sit within
- Step 4: Create a space frame for Nightingale WOW
- Step 5: Celebrate our interest in different housing typologies
- Step 6: Space frame + context
- Step 7: Create a Kit-of-Parts facade so that residents can identify their homes
- Step 8: Space frame and Kit-of-Parts response to Design Development Overlay 18 (DDO18)
Further to this, the design team has sought to reduce the visual bulk of the development by imagining the massing as four vertical volumes separated by voids which expose vertical circulation and create a light courtyard, while also allowing for privacy and natural light.
The upper three levels are setback to reduce their visual impact to the street, while also creating a legible four-storey street-wall along West Street and the communal Mews - shared with Clare Cousins Architects' 12 Duckett Street.
Along the Upfield cycling corridor the ground floor is set-back an average of 2 metres to allow for pedestrian movement without impeding traffic along the bike path. This also creates 'protected pockets' for vegetation and dwell spaces.
Common amenities for the building's future residents are located on the rooftop and include shared laundry facilities, a productive garden and social spaces.
The Kit-Of-Parts approach to the space frame facade allows for each apartment to have its own unique expression and identity, drawing on the vibrant and eclectic local context.
Next up in the Nightingale Village series will be Hayball's CRT + YRD.
